Warning over tide times after spike in people getting stranded off Norfolk coast

Watch a full report from ITV News Anglia's Rob Setchell.

Rescue teams and lifeguards have pleaded for visitors to the region's coast to check the tide times after a spike in the number of people getting stranded.

At Wells-next-the-Sea, in Norfolk, the number of incidents the RNLI responded to last year almost doubled, to more than 90. Two out of every three were walkers cut off by the tide.

RNLI crew member Mandy Humphreys said the beach was notorious for catching out visitors, with isolated sandbanks and a fast-flowing channel.

"There have been lots of incidents here," she said. "A few weeks ago we had people being swept out to sea just off Blakeney.

"Fortunately we managed to launch the boat really quickly and get to them before they got swept out too far but that was a really scary moment for the crew and the people who were being rescued."

Wells beach, with its fast-flowing channel, at low tide. Credit: ITV News Anglia

Jan Chauly, from Redbourn in Hertfordshire, was on holiday in Holkham when she needed the RNLI.

Distracted by a beautiful walk and taking pictures, she hadn't noticed the tide coming in around her.

"I started panicking because I saw that everything was under the sea," she said. "I just called 999 and two and half hours later I was rescued by helicopter.

"I just remember the paramedic's hand. I'd been on holiday on my own - kind of a solitary retreat. I realised how important human beings were."

The RNLI is desperately trying to raise awareness with signs, posters, leaflets and even a siren, which sounds four hours before high tide at Wells.

The beach there is Norfolk's busiest to be a lifeguard. There were dozens of incidents last summer - and now they're preparing for another influx of holiday-makers.

"We're going to see a rise, definitely, just because of staycations," said RNLI Water Safety Lead Nick Ayers. "Covid-19 is stopping people travelling abroad so we're going to see a lot more people at the coast enjoying the water.

"All we want people to do is make sure they know what to do - take a mobile phone in a water-proof pouch, dial 999 and ask for the coastguard before things escalate too much and the worst thing you can do is enter the water after somebody else."