RNLI pull two men from water just 300 yards from Southend beach
One man has died and a second was taken to hospital following an accident off the Essex coast. The men were said to be in a dinghy – the exact type of boat is unknown – off Southend in Essex when it capsized. Members of the public alerted the Thames Coastguard, which in turn alerted Southend RNLI at 14:45 on Monday 17 December.
At the time, the Southend RNLI crew were at the boathouse for training, allowing them to be at the scene in a matter of minutes. The crew were told that there was a man clinging to a small boat, but as they reached him, he advised that there was another man in the water near by. The RNLI quickly found the second casualty and took him back to shore where a member of the crew and a passing fire officer treated him at the Thorpe Bay Yacht Club slipway until the ambulance crew arrived.
The man clinging to the boat was treated for hypothermia, however, efforts to revive the second man were sadly unsuccessful.
