A teenager was rescued by a lifeboat crew who used their bare hands to dig him out after he became stuck in deep mud.

The Sheerness RNLI inshore lifeboat Buster was launched at 7pm on Saturday evening after the trapped teen called 999 on his mobile phone.

He had climbed down the cliffs between Minster and Eastchurch to walk along the beach.

Lifeboat spokesman Vic Booth said: "As it was dark, the crew asked him to flash the torch on his mobile phone."

At the first attempt the crew found a fisherman. At the second attempt they found the youth on cliffs below Bell Farm Lane.

With just three hours before high tide, three crew members scrambled ashore and pulled the teenager free after digging him out with their bare hands.

Mr Booth said: "The youth was suffering from hypothermia having been trapped up to his thighs in the freezing mud for more than an hour.

"The crew wrapped him in a survival blanket and balaclava, carried him to the lifeboat and took him to Sheppey Yacht Club where he was landed."

Sheppey Coastguard Rescue Team met him and stretchered him to an ambulance.