Lowestoft Lifeboat has this afternoon rescued 11 people after a dive boat got into trouble.

The lifeboat was on an exercise, when crew spotted the 10-metre recreational dive boat in trouble at about 12.10pm.

Four people were trapped in the wheelhouse as the boat sunk at the stern. They managed to escape through the wheelhouse window.

All 11 people on board were safely rescued from the water by the lifeboat crew. Four people have been taken to hospital for treatment for 'diesel ingestion'.

The majority of those rescued are believed to be local, from Lowestoft, Ormesby and Bedford.

The boat, which can be seen from shore, partially sunk a quarter of a mile to the north east of Lowestoft Harbour entrance but drifted in tide and has now come to rest against a sandbank at the front of the harbour entrance.

The lifeboat crew, which described the incident as a 'major rescue', is out at the scene putting an anchor down to stop it from drifting further and to make the wreck safe.

A Lowestoft Lifeboat spokesman said: 'It was so fortunate the lifeboat was on a Sunday morning exercise that it saw the boat clearly in trouble.

'It was able to be on the scene without any delay and rescue the 11 people who had been on board it.'

A spokeswoman for the East of England Ambulance Service confirmed four of the people who were rescued have been taken by ambulance to the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston.

She said: 'We were called at 12.16pm to reports of 11 people in the water. We sent three rapid response vehicles and one ambulance to the scene.'

The service's three rapid response vehicles stayed on scene, near the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, to treat the other seven people rescued, who were uninjured but cold from being in the water. They were re-warmed at the scene and did not require hospital treatment.

More details on this story will be updated as they become available.