Two people had to be rescued after a 2,000-ton cargo vessel and a yacht collided in the English Channel.

The Coastguard received a mayday call at 4.10am this morning and scrambled its search and rescue helicopter from Lydd to the incident near Dungeness.

The Dungeness RNLI lifeboat rescued two people from the yacht, who are understood to be safe and well.

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Dover RNLI lifeboat and Dungeness Coastguard Rescue Team were also called out.

The yacht, a catamaran which measured about 42ft long, has become entangled with the superstructure of the 270ft cargo vessel and will need to be released, but is thought to be intact.

However, its mast has been destroyed.

The cargo ship was on its way from Riga in Latvia to Shoreham in West Sussex.

The Maritime & Coastguard’s enforcement team and the duty surveyor are monitoring the situation.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has also been told.

Kaimes Beasley, maritime operations controller at Dover Coastguard, said: "Collisions are relatively infrequent.

"There did used to be quite a few collisions in this part of the world simply by virtue of the number of vessels in transit around the south coast.

"Now, statistically, there are fewer than one per year."