Angler saves girls from sea

The children got into difficulties under Cromer Pier

An angler who was lowered from a pier into the sea, saved the lives of two girls who were in danger of drowning.

Alan Herbert, 55, was fishing off the pier in Cromer, Norfolk, when he spotted the children in the sea at about 1545 BST on Saturday.

Mr Herbert, from Taverham near Norwich said "I saw the girls in the breakwater and they were screaming and giggling.

"Then I realised they were not playing."

He ran to a lifeboat station at the end of the pier to raise the alarm.

Mr Herbert, who is also a residential nurse, was lowered about 30 feet in a lifebelt by other anglers.

He and a lifeguard managed to get the youngest girl, aged six, into the lifejacket and she was taken ashore by a lifeboat.

Clung to post

"I saw the other girl was unconscious under the water and went back with a lifeguard to search for her," said Mr Herbert.

He gave the eight-year-old mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and held on to her while clinging to a concrete post sticking out of the water until the lifeboat arrived to rescue them.

The eight-year-old is said to be in a serious but stable condition after being transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

The six-year-old was released from hospital on Sunday.

At least two other children, aged 11 and 12, scrambled to safety from under the pier.

Two of the children were local and two were holidaymakers.