THREE men had to be rescued by the RNLI after their fishing boat sank in the North Sea.

The trio were on a life raft about two miles off the Hartlepool coast when they were picked up by volunteer crew from the town's RNLI lifeboat station.

The station had recieved a request from the Humber Coastguard for help and got to the scene at about 1.35pm on Thursday, returning to the station 25 minutes later.

No medical attention was needed for the three men.