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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Maxine Denton & Graeme Murray

Quick-thinking six-year-old boy saves lives of two tourists trapped on beach

A heroic six-year-old boy has been praised after saving two tourists when they became trapped on a beach.

The youngster, named Sam, spotted the duo had become stranded and told his mum and dad, who alerted the coastguard.

An RNLI came to their aid just moments later after the holidaymakers could not get back to shore.

The St Agnes lifeboat was sent to Star Beach near Trevaunance Cove, Cornwall, where volunteer crews were able to bring the pair back to safety.

Cornwall Live reports that volunteer RNLI helm, Rich Draisey, said: "Star Beach is a classic cut-off spot because it is tucked in below the cliffs and people do not see that the tide has already come in around the corner.

Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes where the holidaymakers were rescued (Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

"Thanks to Sam’s awareness and his parents’ timely call to the emergency services, we were able to bring them safely to shore."

Sam said he is keen to develop his water safety skills and is planning on joining St Agnes Surf Lifesaving Club this summer.

The Mirror told how 32 people who were caught in a riptide in the same area in 2014.

RNLI lifeguards rescued then after a gnarly rip-tide caused chaos on a Cornwall beach.

With a large number of people still in the water and difficult conditions on the high spring tide, the lifeguard team worked overtime to ensure everyone was safe.

The two tourists had become stranded by the tide in St Agnes, Cornwall (Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

Working past their 6pm finish time, the six-strong crew were patrolling the beach and realised conditions were too dangerous to finish their lifeguard duties.

The team worked tirelessly on Polzeath beach for another 90 minutes to rescue a total of 32 people - many of them children, including seven swimmers and 25 bodyboarders.

Senior lifeguard Ben Miskowicz said: "The conditions at Polzeath this week are particularly challenging, we have a high tide, strong onshore winds and large swell.

"The winter storms have changed the typography of Polzeath and now at high tide we have some rip currents at both the northern and southern end of the beach.

"The northern rip is particularly prominent at high tide at the moment and between 6pm and 7.15pm last night the lifeguards assisted 32 people who’d fallen off the bank of sand and straight into the path of the rip current."

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