A pensioner was rescued from mud flats on the River Medway yesterday afternoon after being stuck for three hours.

The emergency services were called out to the river near Station Road, Cuxton, at about 12.45pm where they found the man firmly stuck in the mud.

Firefighters, the Medway Coastguard team, and ambulance crews and police were called out to the area to rescue the man after someone spotted him and dialed 999 as they were worried about his safety.

The Medway Coastguard team were asked to help firefighters and police officers free the pensioner, who is in his 70s.

It is not clear at this stage how he became stuck and why he was there so long before being spotted.

A spokesman for police in Medway said: “Patrols assisted in preventing the man from sinking further in the mud until he was lifted out at about 1.20pm.”

After the man was freed safely, he was then checked out by paramedics and taken to hospital suffering from suspected hypothermia.