Stay out of the water, RNLI tells have-a-go heroes

♦ The RNLI has warned against amateur heroics after an attempt to rescue one person from the sea led to four people needing to be saved.

Three of those rescued – two men and a woman – had been trying to help a man swept off the sea wall in Redcar, North Yorkshire, on Friday.

After they also found themselves in peril, several members of the public managed to form a human chain to pull them all to safety.

Dave Cocks, of Redcar RNLI, said: “This was a sequence of events which could so easily have led to multiple deaths. It is only through good fortune that all four were rescued alive.

“If you see someone in trouble, alert the lifeguards. Do not enter the water yourself.”