Cleethorpes lifeboat crew rescue two teenage girls off beach

The girls were rescued by the Cleethorpes lifeboat crew as the tide was coming in

Two teenage girls have been rescued by a lifeboat crew after using a mobile phone app to pinpoint their location.

Meg, 14, and Katie, 16, became lost in the dark on the beach at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, on Sunday evening.

With the tide coming in they called the Coastguard and used the What Three Words app to guide the lifeboat crew to them.

The girls are daughters of the partner of one of the RNLI crew who came to their rescue.

Meg said she had just downloaded the What Three Words app to her smart phone before the incident happened.

The app divides the world into 3m squares and assigns random words to each one. Emergency services use the three words find the location on a map.

"It just gives a really accurate reading to the coastguard where you are," she said.

"It was really useful, because it's hard to find us because it's dark and everything."

As the lifeboat drew near, the sisters used the lights on their phones to guide the crew to them.

RNLI crew member Matt McNally, who is the partner of the girls' mother, said it could have been a "critical situation".

"When a job like this comes in, especially with children, you always thinking how do we make this come out the best," he said.

"But when you get the call and you know it's somebody from your own family then it is on another level."