SWIMMERS came to the rescue to save a woman stuck in the mud off Southend Pier.

Good Samaritans carried the unconscious woman, believed to be in her twenties, through waist-deep water after rushing to her aid yesterday afternoon as the tide rose rapidly.

The Southend RNLI’s hovercraft team met five people carrying the woman about 100 yards from Jubilee Beach and took her to paramedics waiting at the lifeboat station, off Marine Parade, at about 12.50pm on Wednesday.

The air ambulance also landed at the Seaway Car Park, but was not needed. A man refurbishing the Pebbles Two kiosk at Jubilee Beach, who called the coastguard but asked not to be named, said: “We saw them standing out trying to get attention with the girl, shouting: ‘help’.

“The girl was stuck and they were screaming and shouting.

“Some guy rushed out and carried her and more people went to help.

“I think she was stuck in the mud.

From a distance, it looked like she had drowned.”

Paramedics checked over the woman, who had swallowed water, before taking her to Southend Hospital.

Witness Terry Hughes, from London, who was at the beach with his daughter, said: “She was on her own then other people went out.

“They were walking back with her when other people came to help.”

Den Freeman, of Southend RNLI, said: “Our search and rescue hovercraft was launched at 12.50pm to five people walking ashore on the flooding tide carrying a female in her twenties.

She was lapsing in and out of consciousness after possibly ingesting water.”

An ambulance service spokeswoman said: “She was not believed to be suffering any serious injuries, but was taken to Southend Hospital for further assessment.”