A COUPLE and their five dogs have been rescued from Thorness Bay after being cut off from the incoming tide.

Unable to climb the muddy cliff, the couple put in an urgent call to the Coastguards.

After launching at 1.30pm, the Cowes RNLI lifeboat was soon on the scene, and the crew found the woman distressed by their predicament.

The couple and their small dogs, one of which was being carried in a pushchair because of a leg injury, were soon taken aboard the lifeboat.

Within minutes they were landed on the beach at Thorness, where they were believed to be holidaying.

The lifeboat returned to station at 2.05 pm.

On August 28, the lifeboat had also been involved in the rescue of an exhausted dog in sea off the Hampshire shore at Lepe.