A woman in her 30s was rescued by the RNLI last night (Sunday).

The crew of Hastings lifeboat station were summoned to action by a call from the Coastguard at just before 10pm, to reports of a woman in the water 200m off-shore near the De La Warr Pavilion.

The woman had reportedly swum out to sea from the beach.

A spokesman for the lifeboat station said: "The sun was just going down so we put the All Weather Lifeboat on standby, ready to launch to give us a search platform and lights if we needed them

"But we send the ILB [inshore life boat] out because it's much quicker."

The three-man crew quickly found the woman with the help of the coastguard and an eye-witness on the shore and returned her safely to the beach.

The spokesman said: "We found her straight away, got her onto the boat and dropped her off on the beach."

A spokesman for the South East Coast Ambulance service, which attended the scene alongside coastguard and police, said that the patient was examined but doid not need hospital treatment.