A man and wife beachcoming team sparked a lifeboat and helicopter rescue after they were cut off by the rising tide while peering at a dead whale.

The wife used her mobile to call for assistance after the pair went to inspect a whale carcass washed up on a sandbank at Wells-next-the-Sea, North Norfolk.

A Yarmouth Coastguard, Roly McKie said the pair had a ‘very lucky escape’ on a ‘very dangerous’ stretch of coast and should have checked the tide tables before going on their whale hunt.