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Moment terrified young girl is rescued by lifeguards after being swept out to sea on inflatable
The child had drifted hundreds of metres out to sea
Shocking footage has shown the moment a terrified little girl was rescued after being swept out to sea over the bank holiday weekend.
The Royal National Lifeguard Institution (RNLI) shared the footage on Facebook after experiencing a spike in callouts over the long weekend, which saw thousands of Brits flock to local beaches as temperatures soared to 25 degrees Celsius.
The RNLI said it responded to a total of seven call-outs over the bank holiday weekend – five on Sunday and a further two on Monday.
‘Offshore wind and high tides’ caused problems, they said, with ‘inflatable toys, boats and balls being carried out to sea with regularity.’
RNLI Rhyl / Facebook
But in this particular instance, they found a young girl who had been swept out to sea in an inflatable raft, ‘a couple of hundred metres’ from the coast in Rhyl, North Wales.
The initial call out was made at 1:47pm, and crews were able to reach the child in just three minutes.
In the bodycam footage from the rescue, the girl can be heard tearfully calling out for help as she was pulled from her raft and onto the lifeboat.
The crew could be seen attaching her raft to their own boat as they reassured her that ‘we’ll get you back to your parents.’
In a statement, the RLNI said: “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.”
Writing on Facebook, the RNLI further explained: “The girl was reunited with her family on the beach with Rhyl Coastguard Rescue Team.
“The video is taken from a video taken on board the lifeboat crew’s head cameras, copyright RNLI, and with the family’s kind permission.”