Trapped teenagers turn to Facebook

Two teenage girls trapped on rocks during a rising tide were rescued after putting out a Facebook alert.

In a sign of the times, the two girls' first thought was to highlight their danger on the social networking site - despite having a phone.

Luckily for them, a Facebook friend also happened to be an RNLI volunteer who quickly messaged back telling them to call the coastguard.

The girls found themselves trapped on rocks near Waterwynch Bay, close to the resort of Tenby, west Wales, on Sunday afternoon.

Tenby RNLI volunteer Ross Edwards happened to be online looking at Facebook at the time when he spotted their message.

He told them to contact Milford Haven Coastguard which called out Tenby inshore RNLI lifeboat.

Five minutes later, the girls were back on land, unhurt and a little cold but otherwise unharmed.

"It was a stroke of luck, a simple coincidence, that a volunteer happened to be on Facebook," said Phil John, duty coxswain at Tenby RNLI.

He said the girls had been for an afternoon beach stroll and thought the tide was going out when, in fact, it was actually returning.

He added that he would never encourage anyone to rely on a social networking site to raise help if they had a phone with them.

"Simply call the emergency services if you ever find yourself in such a predicament," he said.

PA