Lifeboat called out for Pokemon boys

SIX teenage boys playing Pokemon Go on a crumbling pier sparked a major rescue operation when they got cut off by the tide.

The group had been hunting for virtual creatures which are hidden in real locations on the smartphone game, which has become a global sensation with many millions of players.

The volunteer lifeboat crew in Westonsuper-Mare was mobilised by Milford Haven Coastguard to rescue the boys who were on the derelict Old Pier on Birnbeck Island. Meanwhile police, the fire brigade and local coastguard teams gathered at the landward end of the pier in case the teenagers became completely trapped.

As the lifeboat prepared to launch, the crew spotted two boys wading back to the shore with the tide rising rapidly to chest height. However, the pair made it back without the help of the crew.

The volunteers then saw four more boys walking along the pier’s unsafe walkway back to the shore. They too made it back unharmed. Commenting on Thursday night’s incident, lifeboatman Chris Lyons said: ‘Putting your life in danger trying to catch Pokemon is extremely irresponsible. In Weston the tide comes in so quickly, in seconds you can be in lifethreatening danger.’

It is just the latest example of people putting themselves in harm’s way because of Pokemon Go.

On Wednesday night three girls were spotted by the police standing in rough seas near Hastings Pier in East Sussex.