A lifeboat crew was called to rescue a man adrift in a tiny dinghy in the River Medway just after 2am this morning.

The volunteer crew of the Sheerness RNLI inshore lifeboat ‘Buster’ launched at 2.08am following a report from Kent Police that a man in difficulty in a dinghy near Gillingham Pier.

The lifeboat was on the scene at 2.34am and quickly located the casualty who it is believed had set out in the small craft to look for another dinghy, which had either broken or been cut adrift earlier.

The crew took the man and his dinghy back to the safety of Gillingham Pier where the Medway Coastguard Rescue Team and a Kent Police crew were waiting.