Four fishermen were plucked from a liferaft on Saturday evening, after their boat sank off Linney Head, near Castlemartin.

The 54 foot fishing vessel Kerloch J235 was on passage from Lundy to Milford Haven when it hit Crow Rock, off Linney Head, just before 6pm.

The four crew managed to get into a liferaft, before setting off a red distress flare and making an emergency 999 call.

Another fishing boat, the Dolly Ann, spotted the flare around 1.5 nautical miles off the headland , they reported the sighting to the coastguards and made their way to the site.

Just after 6pm they had retrieved all four men from the liferaft and started heading to Milford Haven.

Coastguards rebroadcast a mayday signal into the area to alert other vessels of the incident and tasked Angle to the scene.

The four men were transferred from the Dolly Ann to the lifeboat, they were reported to be shaken, but not suffering from hypothermia.

An ambulance was called as a precaution, and the men were taken to Withybush Hospital for a check up.

The Haverfordwest owner of the vessel also attended the coastguard station at Milford Haven.

The Kerloch J235 was carrying 2500 litres of fuel oil and 40 gallons of hydraulic oil in sound tanks when she sank, because of this the maritime coastguard agency's counter pollution team were called.

Graham Warlow, duty watch manager at Milford Haven, said that the relevant agencies had been informed.

"Fortunately the weather was fairly benign and the site of the sinking is not too far off the coast," he said.

"We would like to thank the crew of the Dolly Ann who responded promptly when they sighted the red flare and also to the crews of other vessels who responded so quickly to our rebroadcast mayday signal.