Man rescued from sea in Blakeney Harbour

A fisherman who had fallen into the sea was rescued by a passing tourist boat off the north Norfolk coast this morning.

A fisherman who had fallen into the sea was rescued by a passing tourist boat off the north Norfolk coast this morning.

The 57-year-old local man lost his footing as he tried to step from a small tender vessel into his larger fishing boat moored in Blakeney Harbour. He was believed to have been in the water for about 10 to 15 minutes before he was spotted by a Temples boat taking trippers home from viewing the seals at Blakeney Point.

Jane Temple, of the family-run boat firm, said passengers and crew on the Temple boat had seen the man waving and went to his aid.

'By the time they found him he was losing energy fast. With great difficulty two of my crew and a passenger managed to haul him into his tender. He was fully clothed and a dead weight - close to being unconscious,' said Mrs Temple, who also owns Morston's Anchor pub.

Alerted by her crew via radio, she had rung 999 and a paramedic and then an ambulance were waiting to help the man who was brought back to shore in his tender by a Temple crew member and one of the passengers.

Mrs Temple said he had struggled to walk but a wheelchair had been fetched to help him and the East Anglian Air Ambulance had then flown him to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. He was believed to be suffering from hypothermia, according to an air ambulance spokesman.

'I am so proud of my guys and our passengers - they all behaved absolutely superbly and did everything they could to help him,' said Mrs Temple.