Children rescued in seaside drama

A group of children rescued from the sea by lifeguards were fully clothed and walking backwards into the water. The group, part of a team-building exercise, were plunged into the cold waters off the West Wales seaside resort of Tenby after a sandbank they were walking on collapsed as the tide turned.

The youngsters, aged from 10 to 20, had been paddling backwards into the sea arm in arm singing songs at the time. They were on a three day seaside break run by a group called Action Camp which organises confidence-boosting breaks for youngsters from deprived areas of Wales, many of whom have never seen the sea. Bill Fitzgerald, the group leader of the Tenby party, insisted that the novel team-building exercise was not generally dangerous and would continue. Lifeguards Adam Pitman, Jon Johnson and Coral Lewis insisted that but for their intervention lives could have been lost.