The crew of a fishing boat had to board a life raft after they were hit by the "nightmare scenario" of being lost at sea and taking on water.

RNLI Cromer’s all-weather Tamar class lifeboat was launched at 12.14pm on Tuesday, December 15, after reports of the boat in trouble.

On arrival at the scene, the lifeboat found all seven of the fishing boat's crew had evacuated their vessel and got into a life raft.

Three of the casualties were airlifted to Hull by rescue helicopter while the remaining four crew members were transferred into the lifeboat and brought back to shore where they were treated by paramedics before being transferred to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

John Redmond, lifeboat operations manager, said. "Reports of a lost vessel taking on water are a nightmare scenario to all people and needed to be acted upon immediately.

"We were soon on scene and pleased that we were able to resolve the situation. All thanks go to the other emergency services that assisted us."