Dramatic video footage has been released of a brave RNLI lifeboat crew saving two young children caught on a rock groyne in rough conditions off Merseyside.

The lifeboat was able to get close enough to the groyne for one of the volunteers to swim towards them.

The children, wearing only shorts and T-shirts, and were suffering from exhaustion and had been hit repeatedly by the incoming waves.

Ian Thornton, operations manager at New Brighton Lifeboat, said: “This was a fantastic team effort in dangerous and unpredictable conditions.”