TWO men have been taken to hospital after being thrown into the sea when their toy dinghies capsized in strong winds.

One man managed to get himself ashore while the other was rescued from the water by another group of people who were using an inflatable dinghy nearby.

The incident happened at Redcar at around 6.30pm this evening.

Two RNLI lifeboats from Redcar were launched to the rescue, joined by colleagues from the lifeboat station who travelled to the scene near the Majuba car park in four-wheel drive vehicles.

Dave Cocks, one of the RNLI team who arrived by road, said: “When we got there, both men were ashore. One was cold and was being cared for by UK Coastguard officers.

“The second man was in quite a bad way. He was slipping in and out of consciousness but managed to tell us he’d been in the sea for quite a while.

“We gave him emergency medical aid until an ambulance crew arrived and then we used one of our crew’s four-wheel drive vehicles to carry the man to the ambulance.”

Both men, who come from Redcar, were taken to hospital for treatment.

Mr Cocks said: "This is yet another example of people going to sea in toy inflatables which are totally unsuitable for the North Sea.

“Neither man was properly equipped. They didn’t have lifejackets and in fact the man we treated had lost all his clothes during the incident, making him much more vulnerable to hypothermia.

“The RNLI’s Respect The Water campaign is aimed squarely at those people who have no intention of being in the sea but through incidents like this end up in danger of losing their lives.”