Two men were rescued from the mud at Gillingham when their boat ran aground on the River Medway.

Coastguards reported the small vessel was stuck off The Strand at Gillingham at 8.35pm yesterday and the crew of the Sheerness RNLI inshore lifeboat was sent to help.

The two men and the boat were found at 8.55pm high and dry on a mud bank.

The lifeboat crew walked across the mud and found the men aged 27 and 30 suffering from the cold. One had been in the water for some time.

Medway and Sheppey Coastguard teams helped the lifeboat crew get the men to the shore where they were treated by an ambulance crew.

The lifeboat crew then dragged the boat into deeper water and tied it to a mooring buoy.

The crew, covered in mud, returned to its Sheerness station just before midnight and, after a hose down, was ready for service again at 1am.

This was the same craft the crew had been asked to search for the previous evening after reports that it was missing but was later reported as being safe.