A ROUTINE exercise in the Channel for Dover Lifeboat crew became a fight for life when they were called to a cargo ship.

Four members of the City of London ll, battled for nearly an hour to resuscitate the second officer who had fallen from the deck into the hold of the Christina.

The lifeboat, under deputy Coxswain Simon Moore, was called to the Christina, 13 miles off Dover in the Southern lane where the 2,800 ton vessel was en passage from Holland to France carrying a general cargo when the accident occurred.

Crew were unable to revive the victim, believed to be a Lithuanian, aged 53, and he was brought ashore and taken to Buckland Hospital, Dover.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the officer's death but it is not thought to be suspicious.