Two fishermen have been rescued off the Thanet coast after dense fog reduced visibility to "virtually zero".

The Margate RNLI all-weather lifeboat was launched yesterday afternoon when the men, who had set off from St Mildreds Bay, Westgate-on-Sea, contacted Dover coastguards saying their dinghy had broken down.

Both men were safe and well when rescuers located their boat off West Bay.

Kevin Andrews, second coxswain of Margate lifeboat, said: "Normally we’d have sent the smaller inshore lifeboat to help the two anglers but given the weather conditions it was decided to send the larger all-weather lifeboat which has radar.

"At one time the visibility was virtually zero and in those conditions they would have been at risk of being run down."