Sailors flee luxury cruiser fire

Two sailors were forced to abandon their cruiser

Two sailors had a lucky escape when their luxury motor cruiser caught fire at sea.

The men made it to the safety of their dinghy and watched as their boat exploded into flames and sank off the Dorset coast near Poole.

They were picked up after their boat sank in Studland Bay on Sunday morning by another vessel. Its passengers had spotted smoke on the horizon.

Their injuries are not known but it is thought they are not serious.

The vessel had to be towed out to sea, amid concerns over two small bottles of potentially-explosive butane gas on board.

Coastguards say the weekend was one of the busiest of the year, with three times the average number of distress calls.