Bait digger feared he would die in River Humber mud after getting lost in fog

A MAN told rescuers he thought he was going to die when he was stuck in mud off Spurn Point.

The Humber RNLI crew managed to battle through the pitch black and fog to rescue the bait digger as the tide came in.

Ben Mitchell, crewman for the lifesavers based on Spurn Point, said the man was about 300m out from land.

He said: "He was lost in the mud on the inside of Spurn Point. The tide was rising and he was completely disorientated. He said he thought he was going to die."

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"With the changing depths of water, fog and complete darkness the casualty was unable to orientate himself and was not sure which way was to safety, putting him in a great deal of danger."

The crew received the call from the Coastguard on Tuesday at 7.30pm.

Mr Mitchell said: "Using local knowledge, we were able to locate the casualty's car and then traverse through a field before searching from the banks and across the sand.

"Through the Coastguard, we asked the casualty to shout out to try and assist in the search.

"At first, we couldn't hear him and with visibility about 25m with the torches, we couldn't see him.

"We were all becoming increasingly concerned as this was a really time critical search. If we couldn't find the casualty soon our job was going to become very difficult.

"Luckily as we left the land the man could see our torches and then we started to hear the faint shouts from the him.

"We waded through changing depths of water, up to our waist at some points, and mud encouraging the casualty to our location, assuring him this was the route to safety.

"The problem for him was the fact he was on a bank so the water got deeper during some points of the walk back to the land.

"He was going to walk further out to sea."

A crewman had been left by the land and one by the water's edge with torches to ensure the crew could get back safely.

The man, believed to be from the area, was then taken back to the crew's station to get checked over and to warm up.

Mr Mitchell said: "It showed how the changing conditions close to shore can become very difficult and even put people in grave danger.

"We were happy that our training, equipment and teamwork were able to bring it to a happy conclusion."

The rescue of the man digging for worms came just hours after they had to assist with a medical evacuation in thick dense fog.

The crew had to help evacuate a man who had severed the top of his thumb and required evacuation to shore with the hope of it being reattached.

Dave Steenvoorden, coxswain at Humber said: "Once we were able to locate the casualty, we transferred him aboard and our crew used their casualty care training to ensure he was stable for our passage back to Grimsby where we could send him on to further medical care."