‘Lucky escape’ for teens swept away by riptide
A TRAGEDY was narrowly avoided when three teenagers were rescued after being swept out to sea in South Shields.
The 14-year-olds were saved during a multi-agency operation involving Cullercoats and Tynemouth RNLI, Sunderland Coastguard Rescue Team, South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade, the police and paramedics on Saturday.
At around 2.50pm, lifeboat crews were initially tasked to help a broken down boat, where the occupants were in no immediate danger, but were diverted after reports came in of youngsters being swept out to sea off the beach at South Shields.
Cullercoats RNLI, with four volunteer crew members on board, sped to the scene where they could see several teenagers scrambling out of the water on to the shore.
However, one crewman caught sight of what he thought was a person around 700m from the shore and, when they investigated, they found a girl, believed to be aged 14, just under the surface.
The girl, who couldn’t swim, was immediately brought on to the lifeboat and found to be conscious but extremely cold.
She was taken to shore and transferred into the care of waiting paramedics.
Meanwhile, there were other people in the water reportedly unaccounted for, so both Tynemouth RNLI inshore and allweather lifeboats were launched by UK Coastguard to search the area around the piers and South Shields beach. Members of Sunderland Coastguard Rescue Team and South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade were also tasked to assist on shore while a police helicopter also searched the area.
As Tynemouth RNLI approached the beach, the crew were waved down and alerted to the two missing casualties, a girl and boy both aged 14, who were now on the beach but requiring immediate help.
The three RNLI crew members started getting the casualties warm and administering oxygen as they were suffering mild hypothermia.
Once stable, the teenagers were put in the lifeboat and also taken to South Shields ferry landing to be placed in the care of another paramedic crew and taken to hospital.
Ben Bradshaw, Cullercoats RNLI lifeboat helm, said: “The girl we pulled from the water was extremely lucky as she was a long way from the beach and difficult to spot and, if we hadn’t already been launching to another less urgent service, we may not have reached her in time to save her.”
Mr Bradshaw added: “The south-easterly wind wasn’t particularly strong so we think the teenagers had been caught up in a rip current, which dragged them out to sea.”
Michael Brown, Tynemouth RNLI crew member, said: “The casualties we picked up from South Shields beach were going into hypothermia and weren’t in a good way so we administered casualty care while speeding them to waiting paramedics who took them to hospital.”
Adrian Don, spokesman for Tynemouth RNLI lifeboat station, added: “These teenagers were extremely lucky but our volunteer crew members training, extensive experience and a bit of good luck averted what could easily have been a tragedy.
“There was a fantastic response from all the agencies involved.”