St Davids lifeboat crew members have been praised for their bravery, after they swam through rough swell to rescue three teenage girls in danger of being swept out to sea.

The 16-year-olds, all on holiday from Cardiff, had become trapped in a gully at the base of a cliff at Caerfai Bay, St Davids, at around 8pm.

The quickly rising tide meant that the girls could not get themselves to safety and could not be reached by coastguard teams.

Both St Davids lifeboats were tasked to the scene, however heavy seas meant that there was a real danger of the inshore lifeboat (ILB) being washed up onto the cliff face and over submerged rocks if it went into the gully.

After assessing the situation it was decided to scramble the RAF rescue helicopter from Chivenor.

The helicopter would take about 45 minutes to get to the scene, but as the tide rose quickly the danger that the three girls would get swept off the rocks became more pressing.

The crew of the ILB consulted with coxswain David John and decided that one of their members would swim out in the rough ground swell, and over submerged rocks, to the casualties.

The crew member reached the casualties, assessed their condition, and managed to swim back to the ILB with one of the girls.

Once the girl was safely in the ILB all three of the crew members, Simon Thornton, Nicholas Phillips and Simon Twitchen, decided to swim back to the ledge and rescue the remaining two teenagers.

All three girls were then transferred from the ILB to the bigger all weather lifeboat which had stood by during the rescue.

The three girls were then taken back to the lifeboat station to be met by their parents, none the worse for the experience.

"It was a very rough swell," said a coastguard spokesman. "The three girls could have easily been washed off. It could easily have been a lot different."

Coxswain David John praised his crew, saying: "This was a first class rescue carried out by the ILB crew in difficult conditions and is a direct result of how highly trained they are by the RNLI".