Teen rescued on Norfolk beach on live TV watched as sand vanished

A 13-year-old boy rescued live on television after being stranded by the tide has told how he watched the sand disappear as he waited for help to arrive.

Kaan was at Wells-next-the-Sea, in Norfolk, on Friday enjoying the hot weather with his friends and mum.

BBC Look East cameras captured the moment he became stranded by the tide and were still rolling when a RNLI crew carried out the rescue.

Kaan, who had swam out to a sandbar after being carried by the tide, said: “I didn’t realise how far out I was until I saw the BBC News. I didn’t realise how far out and scary it actually was.”

BBC journalist Debbie Tubby had been reporting from the beach as cameras saw Kaan stranded on the sand bar shortly after the regional news programme started airing at 18:30 BST.

After continuing with other reports, the programme then returned to Tubby less than 10 minutes later.

Footage showed the sand covered by water, with the boy being helped by the RNLI crew.

The BBC was broadcasting from the beach after 40 people had been cut off by the tide the previous weekend.

Alongside friends, Kaan had been playing in the water until he put his feet down and realised he could no longer touch the ground.

He said: “It’s really scary and worrying… It could really end up tragic and dangerous.

“I was very thankful and very pleased that they [RNLI] came. They are great at their job. They are wonderful people.”

Watching on, his mother, Sam, had entered the water up to knee-height but could not go any further due to the power of the tide.

She said: “I felt confident in the fact I could see them [RNLI] coming down the ramp, and I knew they were on their way.”

Once her son was rescued, she said the feeling of relief turned to slight embarrassment.

“It’s worse when you’re from the area that these things happen… Now it’s happened to us, it’s made me even more aware of it.

“If you’re a tourist here on holiday, it makes it even worse,” she said.

“We are lucky to have [the RNLI] just there, where it is a prime position for things happening, or even walkers who get cut off.”