SWIMMERS suffering from severe hypothermia had to be rescued from the waters off the North-East coast on Sunday.

Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade was called out Whitley Bay on Sunday by the UK Coastguard.

"UK Coastguard paged the Brigade after receiving a 999 call raising concern for the safety of a number of swimmers in the water off the middle of Whitley Bay beach," said a brigade spokesman.  "Lifeboats from Blyth and Tynemouth RNLI were already at sea at the time of the call and were tasked to do a search of the water. As Brigade members arrived the Lifeboats identified one casualty in the sea who they quickly recovered to their boats.

"A short time later a further casualty was brought ashore by another swimmer. Both casualties were conscious but appeared to be suffering from severe hypothermia.

"As Tynemouth Lifeboat brought the casualty recovered from the sea back to their station, Brigade members cared for the casualty who had made it ashore.

"Crews from the North East Ambulance Service arrived at the two different locations and both casualties were then taken to hospital for further assessment and treatment."