These were the dramatic moments when a French fishing boat sank despite efforts by Dungeness RNLI to help.

The Shannon class The Morrell was called out to the stricken vessel, 11 miles south east of Dungeness, at 3.45am on Saturday.

The two people on board had already abandoned the 10-metre vessel and scrambled onto a Boulogne fishing boat standing by.

The Morrell crew found that these two were safe and well, having not even fallen into the sea.

But they also found that the stricken boat was taking in too much water.Within three minutes the lifeboat had to speedily be moved away to prevent it also being damaged.

The stricken vessel could not be saved and eventually sank.

The scenes of its gradual immersion were photographed by RNLI crew member Rod Bradnam.