A dad pulled six members of the same family from the sea in a miraculous rescue.
Kevin Viles was having a walk with his family in Gwithian, Cornwall yesterday afternoon when a whole family was swept into the sea.
The group had been standing on rocks before six of them were swamped by large waves, Cornwall Live reported.
The 44-year-old business owner sprang into action, pulling them out one by one.
He then set about resuscitating one of the family members.
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A short while later an RNLI lifeboat, ambulances and the Cornwall Air Ambulance attended the scene.
Kevin explained that it was "the worst thing he's lived through" as he was convinced that some of them would die.
He said: "We were walking the dog and walked there to see the lighthouse because my son is doing a school project about lighthouses.
"We were taking videos when my partner Lisa ran up to me saying, 'there are people in the water'.
"There were about six people out in different depths, two men in the shore who looked like they were drowning."
Kevin pulled a woman out first.
"There were two children, about six and eight years old, a boy and a girl," he recalled.
"They were being tossed around in the waves.
"I can't really remember how I dragged them up. None of them had any energy."
While Kevin was attempting to save the family, his partner Lisa, 37, alerted the coastguard.
"I was passing them to my family and my family was helping them up the steps," Kevin said.
He went on to help another girl, who was about 12, who was vomiting and had collapsed.
"A woman washed in, face down," he added.
"The men wanted to help, but they were helpless, they were exhausted.
"It felt like she was gone. We had waves crashing over us still.
"I tried to give her CPR but her jaw was locked.
"Someone gave her chest compressions while I was trying to wake her up.
"She breathed a little bit. We had to carry her up. She was the last one to come up.
"We put coats onto them and the emergency services started to arrive."
As he worked to save the woman's live Kevin's children Kaitlin, 16, and Fletcher, 9, were consoling the children who had just been rescued.
While he believed it took about 20 minutes for the emergency services to arrive, Kevin said it felt "like a lifetime".
"It was just crazy," he said.
"It is unbelievable that they are still alive. It was a miracle.
"I saw people who were dead as far as I'm concerned."
Just a couple of minutes before he made the daring rescue Kevin was eating an ice cream.
Several of the people rescued were taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
Kevin has since received messages of thanks from the family and the emergency services.
"They're just really good people," he said.
"The two dads were incredible."
