RESCUE teams on Southend’s beaches were kept busy on the hottest day of the year, with several calls, but no casualties.

Calls to the coastguard on Saturday included one, via an emergency line to report a child disappearing into the sea near Southend at about 2.25pm.

Lifeboats, coastguards, an RAF rescue helicopter and police and ambulance services were all called, but shortly after the first rescue team arrived, the four-year-old boy in question was found safely with his mother on a seawall.

Elsewhere,a couple were rescued from the sea at Westcliff by the RNLI hovercraft at about 12.55pm, after they found they were unable to swim back to shore because of the strong tide. They were given safety advice by the coastguard.

Twenty minutes earlier, at Chalkwell, three other swimmers were also cut off by the tide and rescued by the hovercraft.

At 12.40pm, a man and two children were taken ashore by the hovercraft after getting stuck in the mud, to the east of Southend Pier.