Teenage boys rescued from sea in Yorkshire after being spotted by trainee lifeboatman

The brothers, aged 13 and 15, had gone into the water off the beach at Skinningrove, in Redcar and Cleveland near the border with North Yorkshire.

The alarm was raised when a trainee crew member of the Staithes and Runswick RNLI, who happened to be out walking on the beach, spotted the pair at 8pm on Sunday and contacted his fellow crew members.

A lifeboat was launched within four minutes and soon the crew had spotted the boys clinging to debris a quarter of a mile off the beach and hauled them safely aboard.

The boys were then seen to by paramedics before being taken by ambulance to James Cook Hospital, Middlesbrough, for more precautionary checks.

Volunteer helm Lee Jackson said: “This operation showed the RNLI at its very best. Just a few minutes later and it could have been deadly serious.

“The boys were getting very cold, they were wearing only shorts and t-shirts and it would have been even harder to find them in pitch blackness. As it was the crew did exceptionally well to locate them at sea so quickly.

“To launch in four minutes from the alarm is just about a record for this station and for our volunteer crew to have brought the boys back to warmth and safety in under 20 minutes is remarkable.

“Great credit too to our trainee Sam Shelley who raised the alarm in exemplary fashion.”