Mudmen plucked to safety

This is the dramatic moment a man is dragged to safety after being trapped waist-deep in mud in the Thames. The coastguard and fire brigade used special mats to reach the man and a friend before slowly hauling them out.

They got stuck after one of them went to help the other who sank in the mud after trying to walk to the water's edge near Battersea Bridge yesterday evening.

The men, aged 45 and 28, are believed to have been drinking.

A spokesman for the fire service boat patrol said: "We got there very quickly but they were already stuck fast."

He said they beached their flat-bottomed craft as close as they could and then used inflatable mats to crawl across the final 20 yards.

The spokesman added: "They were obviously very distressed and it took us an awful long time to get them out, probably 40 minutes in total. But it actually took longer to clean the boat afterwards."

The men were put on dry land at Cadogan Pier where an ambulance took them to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

Dana Schwenzfeier, 62, who lives in a houseboat nearby, said the first man who got stuck was "definitely drunk," adding: "It was pretty funny watching them but they are about as stupid as you can get to try to walk out to the water."