A cub leader had to be rescued by firefighters after she got stuck up to her waist in mud after helping some children.

Strood firefighters and Medway coastguards were called out last night near Medway Yacht Club in Upnor.

It happened at about 8.30pm and the rescue took an hour.

One of the firefighters who saved her said: "A Cub group had been out walking when a couple of kids got stuck in the mud.

"A couple of the leaders then got the kids out of the mud but one of them got stuck herself. She was up to her waist in the mud which was like quick sand.

"Myself and another firefighter crawled out on our bellies and used bits of wood and ladders to build a platform around her.

"Using our hands we dug around her legs and released her."

A coastguard spokesman said the woman was taken to hospital as a precaution, to be assessed for deep vein thrombosis caused by the effects of hydrostatic pressure.