Family stuck in waist-high mud on Somerset beach

A family became stuck in mud and were at the mercy of the tide before they were rescued by a coastguard  

The four adults and a child were spotted covered in waist-high mud on Uphill beach, near Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, on Sunday afternoon just after 3pm. 

Rescuers were alerted as the family had no bottles of water, with the tide about to turn.

The group were pulled from the mud near Weston-Super-Mare and brought back to shore

Two hovercrafts took rescuers out to the scene and the family were pulled from the mud and taken back to safety.

It was a busy day for the hovercraft crew, who later rescued another boy from the mud.

A Burnham Area Rescue Boat (BARB) spokesman said of the first rescue: ‘The group was given safety advice about the danger of the mud and checked over by paramedics before being released.

‘It was established that the group of four adults and a child were doing OK and had been enjoying a challenging walk and insisted they were in no difficulty.

‘Although this was the case, the concerns are that they had been out in very harsh heat without any water and the exertion of walking through the mud can lead to dehydration.

The group of four men and child became stuck in the mud after the tide went out

Rescuers pulled them free before the tide turned and started coming back in

The spokesman added: ‘A little-known fact is that even in this heat you can also become cold and possibly hypothermic due to sweating from the effort of walking and then stopping and being covered in mud plus the windchill.’

‘As our crews were preparing to leave the scene, several further mud walkers were seen wading through mud near the Grand Pier, with the tide now incoming.

‘BARBs hovercrafts were tasked by Coastguards to fly out to them, and a young child was flown from the tideline back to her relieved parents.’