Two children who became stranded at sea off the north-east coast were “seconds from disappearing”, one of their rescuers said last night.
The youngsters, aged 12 and 13, had been swimming off Fraserburgh beach with another friend when they were dragged out by the waves.
The boy and girl were plucked from the North Sea by the town’s lifeboat crew and taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where they were treated for suspected hypothermia.
By then their friend had managed to swim ashore to safety.
The children’s ordeal sparked a major rescue operation involving both the Fraserburgh and Peterhead lifeboats and the Shetland Coastguard helicopter from Sumburgh.
Last night one of their rescuers described the moment his colleague risked his own life by leaping into the ocean to save one of the youngsters.
Vic Sutherland, Fraserburgh lifeboat station coxswain, said: “I think if we’d been any longer at all, it would have been a different outcome.
“It was a good outcome for everybody, a good sense of relief.”
The alarm was raised around 4.40pm with a report of three people in the sea just off the Tiger Hill area.
Mr Sutherland and his crew mates – John Chalmers, Jim Quinn, Jason Flett, Kenny Ritchie, Stuart Ross and John May – saw people standing on the beach, waving their hands and got their eyes on the two children who were still in the water.
He said the youngsters were stuck about 200 yards off of the shoreline in “a northerly swell” with a wind of about 20-knotts.
Deciding there wasn’t time to deploy a dinghy from the lifeboat, the crew had to act fast.
“Because of the conditions of the casualties, we made the decision we wouldn’t have time to work with the smaller boat,” said Mr Sutherland.
“One of the crew threw a heaving line to the first casualty and the crew just grabbed them in as quick as they could.
“At that time I was monitoring the second casualty and we could see it was just seconds before he disappeared, we really didn’t have much more time to play with.”
It was then that crew-mate, John Chalmers, took matters into his own hands and jumped into the sea to rescue the remaining child.
Mr Sutherland added: “Again, a heaving line was thrown to John, and he was pulled in with the casualty.
“Before we headed out we made sure it was definitely just the two of them in the water.
“Once we got into the harbour about 4.45pm, we got the two casualties transferred into the lifeboat station here and then the ambulance took over.”
Last night, an Aberdeen Coastguard spokesman said: “They were pretty cold so we got an ambulance out there to treat them in case they were hypothermic or had swallowed sea water.”
Coastguard teams from Fraserburgh, Peterhead and Gardenstown were also sent to the scene following the original call.
It is thought the children had been at the beach with friends when they got into trouble.
Police confirmed officers were notified of the incident, but were not required on scene.