Two lifeboats were called to help a Lowestoft based fishing vessel that suffered an engine failure off Cromer.

The Lowestoft RNLI Lifeboat crew were alerted at 2.50am this morning (Monday) to meet the Cromer all-weather lifeboat off Winterton.

They took over the tow of the 10 metre 'Lady Cinderella' fishing boat that had suffered engine problems.

Coxswain John Fox said: 'We met our colleagues in the Cromer RNLI boat near the Cockle Buoy and they handed over the tow.

'We were told that the solo fisherman on the stranded fishing boat had shot his fishing nets into the sea, but with complete power failure, had been unable to pull them in and had to call on another nearby fishing boat to recover them.

'Once the tow line was connected, it took us a little under two hours with a flat calm sea to tow the boat the 20 miles back to Lowestoft and moor her in Hamilton Dock. 'It was really ideal conditions for a rescue and we even got to see the sunrise which was stunning.'

The 'Lady Cinderella' fishing vessel, which operates out of Lowestoft, was also helped by the lifeboat crew on March 31 of this year.

On that occasion, the boat had reported a gear box failure – when fishing 15 miles east of Lowestoft.

In calm conditions, the lifeboat then took about three hours to tow the vessel back to port.