A woman was rescued from mud on Burnham-On-Sea beach by Coastguards on Bank Holiday Monday.
Crews from Burnham-On-Sea Coastguard and BARB Search & Rescue were called to help the woman from a patch of mud near Burnham Pavilion shortly after 2pm.
Large crowds of onlookers lined the seafront to watch the rescue unfold from the sea wall and give supportive cheers when the woman was successfully freed.
A spokesman for Burnham Coastguard said: “A lady was passing by Burnham Pier and suddenly found herself knee-deep in some very sticky mud that gripped her legs tightly, trapping her instantly.”
“Once the tide recedes there is a small mud bar that stretches along the beach and, as the beach changes each day, the soft spots move after every tide.”
“Today a woman got caught out as she walked into the mud bar to get her dog.”
“The RNLI Lifeguards were on duty and spotted the lady and alerted our passing patrol vehicle to the lady’s plight and, as BARB Search & Rescue were out practising, we asked them to stand by in case we needed them.”
“As the lady wasn’t too far off the hard standing two of our mud rescue technicians kitted up and pulled two stretchers out to her location and, after a brief chat to assess any medical problems, they set about digging her feet out with their hands.”
“In no time at all her feet were free but due to the time she was in there they took precautions and kept her sat down to allow the blood flow to gently return to her legs to avoid toxins that build up from being trapped flooding the body.”
“Once she was up the two techs used the stretchers as a walkway moving one in front of the other to get her back to the hard standing to a very nice loud cheer and applause from the large crowds that had gathered to watch.”
The crowds lining the seafront were shown on the live Burnham-On-Sea seafront webcam, as below.
“The lady was a little embarrassed but she was well within the red flags that were placed by the Lifeguards and the mud bar was particularly soft on this occasion. Wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Once again, this shows how much our beach changes after each tide. As always it was a good call, the lady was well and truly stuck and the amount of time she had been there it was important to monitor her for a short while until we moved her.”
“Thanks to all the other teams who were there if we needed them – it’s always good to have amazing teams around us should we need. If you have an emergency at the beach, dial 999 and ask for the Coastguards.”
