Police are investigating a chase by UK Border Agency and Customs officers which ended when a yachtsman was seriously injured with multiple head wounds.

The yachtsman was trying to escape from officers and scaled the mast of a yacht alongside St Mary’s Quay, in the Isles of Scilly. He then leapt from aloft and hit the quay.

A helicopter from RNAS Culdrose flew him to Treliske Hospital in Cornwall for treatment where his condition is serious.