Two five-year-olds swept half a mile out to sea on inflatable swan

Children caught in gust of wind off shore in Minehead, Somerset

The children were safely brought back to shore - with the inflatable swan (Minehead RNLI)

Two five-year-old girls had to be rescued by lifeboats after being swept nearly half a mile out to sea on an inflatable swan.

They were sitting on the toy in the shallows off the beach in Minehead, Somerset, when they were caught in a gust of wind on Saturday afternoon.

The father of one of the girls attempted to swim after the swan but it was quickly swept out into the Bristol Channel.

He returned to shore and dialled 999 at around 3.30pm, prompting the rescue attempt involving two RNLI lifeboats and a coastguard helicopter minutes later.

Volunteer lifeboat helm Phil Sanderson said by the time the lifeboats arrived the inflatable was almost half a mile offshore – and still moving rapidly seawards.

‘Clearly the girls were very frightened by then but we soon had them aboard and reunited with their family,’ he said.

Mr Sanderson said the father “did exactly the right thing” by shouting to the girls to stay on the inflatable until they were rescued.

‘He waded into the water and tried to swim out to them but the thing was just moving too quickly and he couldn’t get near it,’ he said.​

RNLI officials are now investigating why no red warning flags were being flown on Minehead sea front advising people not to swim or use inflatables due to the offshore wind.

“The system was put in place some years ago after a lot of pressure from us because we were dealing with a real spate of incidents like this, one of which involved a fatality,” said Minehead RNLI chairman Bryan Stoner.

“On this occasion, however, it appears the system has failed, though through good fortune no-one has come to any harm.”

The mother of one of the girls thanked the RNLI in a comment on the station’s Facebook post about the rescue.

Sarah Gurr said: “Thank you so much for saving my beautiful little girl and her friend.

“We will forever be grateful to the RNLI and the rescue helicopter for saving our girls today. They were absolutely terrified.”

The station replied: ”It makes all the training worthwhile when we get a great outcome like today. Well done to them for staying on the swan and being so brave and to you for doing the right thing and not trying to self rescue.”