A man has been taken to hospital with flash burns and hypothermia after a boat caught on fire this afternoon.

Emergency services, including firefighters, paramedics and members of the Medway coastguard team, were called to the River Medway near Chatham Maritime after the man fell into the river after the fire broke out.

Firefighters and members of the coastguard team were called out Samphire Way, at St Mary’s Island, at about 2pm.

They arrived to find the man had been rescued from the river by army personnel based nearby, who had heard a small explosion and seen smoke.

The man in his 50s was brought ashore and put into an ambulance.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said the man was taken to Medway Maritime Hospital suffering from burns and the effects of being in the water.

Fire crews used a hose reel to put out the fire and were helped by the army to move the boat up the embankment.