A baby seal rescued from Deal beach after becoming dehydrated has died.

Voluntary marine animal rescue organisation British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) collected the two-week old pup on July 16 during the country's heatwave.

A concerned member of the public had raised the alarm and, after hours of waiting to see if its mother appeared, assistant co-ordinator for Kent BDMLR, Jez Stone, 56, intervened.

The pup, which had been named Buddy, was taken to Burnham Vets in Dover for rehydration and then onto Mallydams Wood RSPCA centre in Hastings, where it was thought he would make a full recovery.

However, yesterday, Mr Stone and his wife, Sheila, who is also a medic, returned to the RSPCA centre with another pup only to learn Buddy didn't survive.

Mrs Stone said: "It is always 50/50 when they are so small.

"We had to take another pup down to Mallydams and asked after Buddy.

"Unfortunately, he had passed away. It seems he went off his food and just faded.

"When they did a post mortem, he had a lot of pus around his heart.

"Apparently, it is quite common for mothers to abandon their pups if they have a congenital infection, and we think this is what happened with Buddy.

"They worked really hard with him and he was on antibiotics, but the infection was too strong."

She added: "Please take comfort in the fact that he was cared for and loved in the end.

"A much better outcome for him than being left lonely and abandoned."

The trained volunteers are again reminding people not to pick up seals due to the risks.

If you see a marine animal in need of help, call the Coastguard on 999 or BDMLR directly on 01825 765546.