Teens rescued during hazardous night call-out

Crews tackled challenging conditions to rescue two teenagers along a stretch of coastline at night - hours after helping paddleboarders in the same area.

Reports were received by Torbay RNLI from concerned parents about four children in the Battery Gardens area of Brixham at 23:30 BST on Tuesday.

Two of the children were found by Brixham Coastguard Rescue Team (CRT) in Churston Woods before the others were located on a ledge at the bottom of a cliff along the Seven Quarries area of the coast.

The RNLI said crews battled through hazardous conditions at night to rescue the pair by 05:15 on Wednesday. Earlier on, the crew rescued eight stranded paddleboarders along the same coastline.

It said the sheer cliff face above the ledge meant they could not get to the children from the land so a recovery plan using an inshore lifeboat (ILB) was devised with help from the CRT and Devon and Cornwall Police.

The RNLI said the crews carrying out the operation had to deal with rough sea conditions and a sudden thunderstorm to rescue the children.

"The ILB's crew carefully manoeuvred the ILB close to the ledge from where they were able to safely recover the casualties - by now tired and cold - into the ILB as dawn was breaking," a spokesperson said.

Jack Hawketts, who helmed the ILB during the rescue of the teenagers, said the crew was pleased to have helped.

"It's a part of the coastline that's not easily accessible - especially at night and in challenging sea conditions," he said.

"But the crew of the ILB, supported by the all-weather lifeboat and her crew, were able to put into practice their many hours of training to achieve a good outcome.

"We're all now just looking forward to a little bit more sleep."

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