A 22-year-old man had to be rescued in Great Yarmouth after a 'prank' went wrong when his rubber dinghy was swept out into sea.

The man had been pushed out to sea in a rubber dinghy as a joke by his friends who took the paddles away from him.

However there was an offshore wind and the prank soon turned into a rescue mission.

Both Samarbeta ALB and Seahorse IV ILB from Great Yarmouth and Gorleston RNLI Lifeboat Station were launched at 3.20pm by Humber Coastguard to assist the man in the water off Britannia Pier.

The lifeboats spotted the dinghy two miles off Britannia Pier and by the time they reached him, he had been afloat for over an hour, drifting away from the shore.

Coxswain Paddy Lee said: 'He is a very lucky man, it was a prank gone wrong and this could easily have been a different outcome.

'He was being blown offshore into windfarm traffic and shipping lanes.

'The dinghy was losing air and he was only wearing shorts, a t-shirt and no shoes and the sea was still very cold.'

A spokesman for HM Coastguard said: 'After receiving a call we asked for a Gorleston lifeboat to go out there and save him. 'He had been attempting to paddle back to shore but the strength of the wind blew him out further.

'We were able to pull him back onto shore along with his dingy and he is absolutely fine and has been re-united with his family.

'Any inflatable of any shape or size can be dangerous and we recommend that when used on open water that they are tethered to the shore.'