A Dundee couple today told of the dramatic moment they rescued a man from the North Sea.
Katie and Lee Hogan, from Menzieshill, were walking along the beach with a group of family members — including their children, seven-year-old Ollie, Ayla, four, and Kelsi, 17 — when they saw a fully clothed man in the sea.
The couple stripped off their clothes before running into the water to pull the man to safety after he became submerged.
Katie, 28, today told the Tele of the “horrifying” incident that unfolded Tuesday lunchtime at the beach in Montrose — where the family were enjoying a caravan break.
The support worker said: “We just ran down as fast as we could — I was thinking, ‘What do I do?’
“We stopped at the water’s edge and I shouted at the man to come back but he turned around and said ‘no’ and started walking out faster.
“The water was up to his neck by that point, so we took our clothes off and both ran into the water and grabbed the man.
“We got an arm each and pulled him back to the shore.
“The man was a bit shaken up — he just had his head down and we were asking what his name was.
“It was a nightmare but I am just glad that we were there at the right time, or it could have been a lot worse.
“We were soaking and the water was absolutely freezing.”
While the drama unfolded, electrician Lee’s sister, Stacey Taylor, 34, had alerted the emergency services and police attended the scene.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland confirmed that officers had attended over concerns for a man in the water.
She added: “He was safely removed from the water and taken to medical care.”
Katie said that the family had only gone to the beach after a play area they had intended to visit had been shut because of a fire alarm fault.
She added: “It was lucky, because if we had ended up going there then things could have been very different.
“My son, Ollie, had run down to the water’s edge too but he is only seven, so there wasn’t much he could do to help.
“He keeps asking us what happened.”
Meanwhile, a Coastguard chief said Katie and Lee had done “a good thing” by saving the man from the sea — but warned others against repeating their actions.
Ross Greenhill, coastal operations area commander for the area, said his team had dealt with numerous incidents in the past where the would-be rescuers actually become the people in distress and in need of saving.
He told the Tele: “We would never encourage people to do that — we would urge them to contact the emergency services and keep an eye on the person’s location so they can direct them to the victim.
“If there is any lifesaving equipment nearby, then we would say to use that.”
Mr Greenhill said that the job of the emergency services can be made more difficult if the people attempting the rescue end up in trouble themselves.
He said: “We could have ended up with more people in distress.
“As much as it was a good thing they did, getting the man to safety, it doesn’t always work out that way.
“It actually doesn’t turn out that way on a regular basis.
“We often see the people involved end up in the same situation as the person they are trying to rescue.
“It is more common that we have to rescue more than the person who was originally in trouble.”