Casualty rescued from sea after fire wrecks yacht

The yacht was found ablaze with a casualty in the water "barely afloat and disappearing under the surface"

One casualty was rescued from the sea after a fire onboard a 35ft yacht.

RNLI volunteers from Tenby were sent out after receiving reports of smoke sighted offshore from Stackpole, Pembrokeshire, on Saturday at about 19:00 BST.

The RNLI crew located the vessel about 12 miles (19km) south of St Margaret's Island.

The vessel was "almost totally destroyed by fire and the occupant of the yacht [was] in the water, barely afloat and disappearing under the surface", said Tenby Lifeboats RNLI on Facebook.

The casualty was returned to Tenby harbour where medics were waiting.

"With the casualty unable to confirm if he was alone on the yacht or not, the lifeboat headed back to the scene to commence a search," they said.

Angle all-weather lifeboat joined the search along with two Coastguard rescue helicopters.

"Having thoroughly searched the area for several hours in choppy seas and heavy rain and with nobody else reported missing, the search was brought to an end," a statement said.

Tenby's all-weather lifeboat returned to base at about 01:00.

Milford Haven Coastguard, Welsh Ambulance Service and Tenby Fire Station were also involved in the callout.