Minehead Lifeboat saves 10 lives in busier than normal year

Most of the lives saved by the Minehead crew were those of paddleboarders

A lifeboat station has been officially credited with saving 10 lives this year, a number higher than normal.

Most years Minehead's lifeboat station saves one or two lives.

The site's local operations manager Dr John Higgie said: "In each case those we saved had failed to take account either of the wind direction, or the direction and speed of the tide - or both."

Seven of the 10 were paddleboarders, the RNLI said.

Each of the seven had been driven to the point of total exhaustion after trying to combat adverse conditions, the RNLI added.

The lifeboat crews go to the help of people and vessels in difficulty in the Bristol Channel

Two more were a couple who became marooned on a rock in the dark, after being cut off by the tide while scrambling back along the beach from Hurlestone Point in November.

Dr Higgie said: "The couple had the sense to carry a mobile phone to call for help.

"If they hadn't been able to do that they would have been stuck there all night and half the next morning as well and the outcome would have been rather different."