A young girl has been dramatically rescued from the sea after her dinghy drifted away from a Welsh beach.
The incident happened at Kinmel Bay near Rhyl, north Wales, on Monday afternoon.
The girl, aged eight, was in the dinghy which was attached to a safety line on the shore. However, the line became detached and the dinghy and the girl drifted out further away from the beach.
Lifeboat crews from Rhyl RNLI - who had already been involved in another rescue on Bank Holiday Monday - were sent to the girl’s aid shortly before 2pm. They sped out to meet her in an inshore lifeboat and a video captured from inside the boat shows the terror on the young girl’s face as she is adrift at sea in the dinghy by herself.
The girl can be heard shouting: “I’m really scared, please help.” She continues to plead for help and is in tears as the rescue crew safely manage to bring her on-board the lifeboat.
She is then taken back to the shore to meet her parents.
A spokeswoman for the RNLI said: “The inshore lifeboat crew from Rhyl launched at 1.22pm and 1.47pm for two such similar 999 calls to the HM coastguard centre at Holyhead. However, it was confirmed that a young child was still aboard the second inflatable. The crew proceeded at full speed to the casualty, which was not far from the first, and so was on scene within three minutes of the second call. The child was a few hundred metres out at sea, but luckily had stayed on the inflatable.
“The child’s family had kept a safety line to the shore, but it became detached from the shore and the dinghy drifted out.
“The crew came alongside and took the child on board with the inflatable, and successfully returned both to the waiting family on the shore, who had been located by Rhyl volunteer coastguard teams who offered safety advice to the family.”
