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North Cornwall: Five rescued after eight days adrift

Five people have been rescued by coastguards off the North Cornwall coast today after spending eight days at sea in a life-raft.
The crew from the 60ft former fishing boat, Inis Mil, are beleived to have been sailing from Ireland to France when the boat got into difficulty and sunk in heavy seas.

After failing to arrive at Le Harve five days ago Irish, British, French and Channel Island search and rescue authorities had launched a search for the vessel but had found no trace.
That is until at 9:18am today one of the crew used a mobile phone to call for help.

A rescue operation then began involving the Padstow and Newquay lifeboats co-ordinated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The survivors, one Australian, two Germans, a Frenchman and a Briton, were located off Trevose Head near Padstoe and airlifted from their dinghy by a helicopter from RNAS Culdrose. They are now at Treliske hospital where it is reported they are suffering from mild hypotermia and hungry.