QUICK-THINKING lifeguards rescued three girls stranded on a sandbank at Fleetwood this week in an incident chillingly like the tragedy in Norfolk which claimed the life of five-year-old Jake Parker.

Willie Scott and Andy Karapiperis spotted the young girls, aged between seven and nine, who had got into difficulty after the fast incoming tide trapped them.

The lifeguards, pictured here on duty on the beach in Fleetwood, ran over one-and-a-half miles out to reach the girls, who had paddled out past the end of the pier. They reached the trio with seconds to spare before the powerful currents swept around them, cutting them off from the shore.

The girls, who were all believed to be local, had to be led to safety by crossing back onto the sandbanks towards the middle of the estuary, avoiding the deep incoming tide.

"The girls were very lucky. The tide here comes in in a sort of 'S' shape because of the estuary and it is easy to get trapped," said lifeguard Andy Karapiperis.

"If we hadn't spotted the girls they would have been stranded about two-miles out. They wouldn't have stood a chance swimming, not least because of the distance, but because the current is extremely powerful, just like the Norfolk coastline," he said.

No details about the girls were available at the time of going to press.