Nineteen people, including children, rescued after getting stranded off Norfolk coast

Nineteen people, including children, had to be rescued after they were cut off by the tide and found themselves stranded off the Norfolk coast.

Coastguard rescue teams from Wells & Cley and Hunstanton, along the RNLI from Hunstanton, were called to Brancaster beach at just after 5pm on Bank Holiday Monday.

The stricken group had been cut off by the tide on the offshore nature reserve of Scolt Head Island and were unable to get back to dry land.

The coastguard rescue teams helped to get the group - 14 adults, five children and four dogs - off the island and back to the shore.

A spokesman for HM Coastguard said: “All were taken ashore and were given appropriate safety advice.”

Just before that incident, the coastguard rescue teams from Wells & Cley and Hunstanton had been tasked with trying to help find a young girl who had gone missing.

The eight-year-old had been reported missing on Hunstanton beach. The coastguard team carried out a brief search, but members of the public had found the girl and taken her to the RNLI station.

It was just as that search was finishing that the teams were called to the Scolt Head Island rescue.

After the Scolt Head Island rescue, the Hunstanton team was retasked again to Hunstanton Promenade where a woman had fallen and was unconscious.

While she was awake and alert, it was decided that the incoming tide meant that it was important to get her off the beach.

She was placed in basket stretcher and carried off the beach, with help from Hunstanton RNLI.

After she was assessed on the promenade, paramedics arrived. She was assessed in an ambulance and was then cleared to go home.

While dealing with that incident, a member of the public who had fallen on rocks while fishing approached the team.

He had lacerations to his back and was given first aid.