Man in rowing boat stuck in mud rescued

A man has been rescued after he became stuck in mud in his rowing boat.

Firefighters and coastguards were called to Heybridge, Essex, by the River Blackwater, at 18:44 GMT on Friday.

Drones monitored the incident and the man was pulled to safety by 20:00 using "line rescue paths", the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said.

Dave Bond, water incident manager, said: "The man became stranded in the mud, about 200m from the shore as the tide went out."

He said crews "did an amazing job and worked really well with the coastguard to form a plan and establish safe systems to rescue him".

He added the man had used the what3words app to help crews reach his exact location quickly and encouraged others to download it.

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