Boy's brave swim to save friends

A 12-year-old defied strong currents to swim a mile to shore in a desperate bid to save two friends clinging to a buoy at sea.

The three boys became stranded by the tide as they tried to wade across the sands on from the pier at Southport to the shore at Blackpool.

Trapped in the middle of the rising estuary, they climbed onto the navigational buoy.

At some point, the 12-year-old was swept off, leaving his two 13-year-old friends shouting for help.

He struck out for shore and took around 90 minutes to make it to the shore near Lytham St Anne's.

Had he been any later raising the alarm his pals would probably have drowned Paul Parkes Liverpool Coastguard

Wet and exhausted from the swim and bleeding from climbing up the sea wall, the boy made it to the home of Ross Edwards, an aerospace worker, to raise the alarm.

"He was freezing cold and we put a towel around him to warm him up," Mr Edwards told the Times.

"Then he started telling us about his two friends still stuck out at sea."

Liverpool Coastguard was scrambled and an RAF Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley.

Hypothermia

The boys were picked up by a lifeboat after the crew heard their cries in the dark.

All three were treated at Victoria Hospital in Blackpool for hypothermia.

Paul Parkes, of Liverpool Coastguard, said the boys, who were on an outing from a care home, were lucky to escape unscathed.

"God knows how the teenager managed to swim back to shore but given the tidal race he was very lucky to survive," he told the Daily Telegraph.

"Had he been any later raising the alarm his pals would probably have drowned."