A man has been rescued after getting lost at sea for four hours.

An alert was sparked at 12.15am this morning, after concerns had been raised for the welfare of a man who had gone into the water at Margate harbour.

Margate RNLI’s D class inshore lifeboat, Margate and Herne Bay Coastguard Rescue Teams, and Kent Police responded to the report immediately.

The search area was widened after they were unable to locate the man in the immediate area using parachute illuminating flares.

Margate’s B class lifeboat joined the search as well as the Coastguard rescue helicopter from Lydd Airport. The UK Coastguard coordinating computed search patterns based on tidal and weather information along with local knowledge input from the rescue units.

Around two hours into the search, the UK Coastguard received a number of reports from people that there was someone shouting for help in the water in the Westgate-on-sea area, so the search was focused on that area.

Lifeboat crews, coastguard officers and police officers ashore also reportedly heard cries for help in the area – however, the source could not be identified.

As a result, the search was widened again and covered Margate harbour to Minnis Bay, which is around four miles west of Margate.

Four hours after the initial alert, Margate’s D class lifeboat located the man around half a mile off Beresford Gap, in Birchington. He was taken on board the lifeboat and casualty care was provided.

The lifeboat returned to Margate and the man was handed into the care of paramedics.

Christian Wright, deputy launching authority at Margate RNLI said: “The longer the search went on the more we feared for a tragic outcome.

“All those involved in this operation quite simply never gave up hope of finding the man and his survival is down to the skill, commitment, training and perseverance of everyone involved, local knowledge also played an important part in the successful outcome of this incident.”