A 29-year-old man who suffered an ankle injury while on mudflats some distance from the beach off the Kent coast was rescued in a dramatic race against time against an incoming tide.

It is believed the man had ventured out onto the mudflats to take a picture of Sunday night's thunderstorm on his mobile phone which he then used to call for help.

The operation to rescue him off Seasalter, near Whitstable, involved a Whitstable Lifeboat crew, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, Coastguards, police, a Lifeboat Shore Party, an ambulance crew and an RAF helicopter.

The Whitstable Lifeboat crew, alerted by Thames Coastguard, launched shortly before 10pm. Firefighters, police officers and the Herne Bay Mobile Coastguard Unit, were already at the scene and an RAF Sea King helicopter, from Wattisham in Suffolk, was also overhead.

The lifeboat arrived just after 10pm but was unable to get close to the casualty due to a lack of water at the scene.

Guided by Kent Fire and Rescue personnel at the water's edge, two lifeboat crew members waded to the casualty who was found standing thigh-deep in water but unable to walk on his injured ankle.

A lifeboat spokesman said: "The tide was rising rapidly but it became possible to bring the lifeboat to the casualty who was lifted onboard and placed in a thermal blanket."

The man, thought to be from the Medway area, was landed at the lifeboat station before he was taken to hospital by ambulance for treatment.