Lifeboat relief at empty horsebox

A lifeboat crew have described their relief when they found that a horsebox swamped by the sea on the Holy Island causeway in Northumbria was empty.

Seahouses RNLI inshore lifeboat was called out on Saturday afternoon and found the only occupant had managed to find his way to a refuge box, built for this eventuality. But the crew said they were even more relieved when they found out there was no horse inside. Operations manager Ian Clayton said: “The crew was very pleased when there was no horse in the vehicle. That would have been quite a difficult situation.”

The man was rescued from the refuge box and landed safely on the mainland side, where he was handed into the care of local coastguard officers.