Boys apologise after cliff rescue

Six teenagers who were rescued by helicopter after getting stuck on cliffs at Dover have apologised for causing the emergency alert.

The boys had been walking below the cliffs but were cut off by the rising tide and unable to climb to safety.

They said they feared for their lives when coastguards and lifeboats launched an air and sea rescue on Monday.

Stuart Richardson, from Dover RNLI, said walkers should think of an escape route in case the tide does come in.

'Good swimmers'

One of the boys, John Persich, said: "We thought we were all going to die."

Another member of the group, Lewis Brown, said rescue teams sent a lifeboat first and tried to bring them down, before using helicopters to winch them to the top of the cliffs.

His mother, Lesley Brown, said on she had told the group how serious the incident could have been.

"They're good swimmers, but there's no way they would have jumped off those cliffs and got out of the sea," she said.

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