A MAN has been rescued from the sea after getting into difficulties 150 metres from the beach.

The Lyme Regis RNLI lifeboat crew was called out at 9.30pm last night following reports of a swimmer missing off Lyme Regis beach.

The man had last been seen swimming out to a catamaran boat moored just outside the harbour entrance, the man's friend on the beach lost sight of him and alerted the coastguard.

The lifeboat was launched within eight minutes of the alarm being raised and found the swimmer struggling around 150 metres from the beach.

The man was then taken to Dorset County Hospital by coastguard teams for observation.

Lifeboat helm Jon Broome said: “We searched around the catamaran, using searchlights, and one of our crew, Andy Butterfield, spotted the man clearly in difficulties.

“He was obviously suffering from the cold as we got him aboard the lifeboat .

“We took him to the lifeboat station where he was given hot drinks and generally cared for before our coastguard colleagues took him to hospital in Dorchester.”

Lifeboat crew member Mark Ellis, who is also a full time paramedic, said: “Once we got the man ashore, I assessed his condition in the lifeboat station and when his temperature had returned to normal after about 90 minutes it was decided to get him to hospital for further observation.”