Teenager sails out on own boat to rescue two men who got into difficulty in water off the Isle of Skye

The RNLI has praised the “quick thinking” of a teenager after he sailed out and rescued two men who had fallen into the water from an inflatable toy boat.

The volunteers from the life-saving sea charity at Kyle of Lochalsh were called to Broadford Bay on the Isle of Skye at around 9pm on Saturday to reports of two men in difficulty.

However, the lifeboat team received a call whilst making their way to say a local teenager had seen the pair in distress and had gone out on his own boat, rescued them and taken them back to shore safely.

Speaking of the incident, Andrew MacDonald, helm for Kyle RNLI said: “Thanks to the quick thinking of the teenager going out in his own boat to rescue the two casualties, a far more serious situation was averted.

“We’d like to remind people that blow up inflatable toys should be kept for use in swimming pools and not open water, and to always ensure that you have lifejackets on and a means of communicating to the emergency services if you get into any difficulty.”