The body of a fisherman was recovered from the sea off Herne Bay by Whitstable lifeboat on Saturday night.

It followed a search of the area nearly seven miles off the coast after a 30ft potting boat called Lisa K was found drifting unlit with no one on board.

A second fishermen was found alive this morning after he was spotted by a passing vessel waving from one of the Red Sands Towers in the Thames Estuary.

The alarm was first raised at 8pm on Saturday when a Port of London Authority boat identified a drifting vessel near the Kentish Flats windfarm off Herne Bay on its radar.

Whitstable lifeboat was launched and soon found the body of the man in the water near the boat.

He was transferred to the Sheerness lifeboat which had joined in the search together with Margate lifeboat and the rescue helicopter from RAF Wattisham.

But there was no sign of the second fisherman said to also have been onboard when the boat left Ramsgate.

Believed to be the skipper, he was rescued this morning from the towers and taken to hospital by helicopter to be assessed for hypothernia,

He said his crewman had gone into the water after their fishing vessel began drifting away from the platform.