TWO fishermen had to be rescued today by lifeboat.

Mechanical failure on the wooden boat left the men stranded about four miles east of Hartlepool in the Tees Fairway area shortly after 1pm.

Matt Adams, volunteer helm on the Hartlepool RNLI Inshore lifeboat, said: "We were paged at 1.03pm by the Humber Coastguard and asked to go to the assistance of a vessel that had suffered gearbox failure.

"We launched at 1.14pm and quickly arrived on scene. There were two people onboard, who had been enjoying the days fishing, and we had the vessel under tow at 1.30pm."

Mike Craddy, Lifeboat Operations Manager at Hartlepool RNLI said: "This is a routine job for our volunteer crewmembers who train every week so we can help save lives at sea.

"We escorted the fishing boat to the safety of Hartlepool Marina and the Inshore Lifeboat departed the casualty at 2.25pm to return to the lifeboat station."

The RNLI used its new Atlantic 85 Solihull Inshore boat to make the rescue.