Lifeboat crews saved five passengers from a yacht struck by lightning.

The Gravesend Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crew were tasked with the rescue after the boat was reported “drifting” at sea near Broadness on the Swanscombe Peninsula.

Volunteers were alerted to the incident at 3.47am.

The sailing yacht was the first of a large flotilla from Belgium on its way to London.

The skipper of the vessel said: “At first we lost power to the engines, we were unable to make way with sails due to no wind and when we were making contact with Port of London via radio, we were struck by lightning which took out all communications and power.”

There was a clear electrical burning smell from the vessel and the crew were advised to disconnect their batteries to prevent further damage or fire.

The RNLI volunteer crew communicated with the skipper of the vessel to perform a welfare check to ensure there were no injuries on board of which there were none.

Volunteers then set up a tow to ensure the boat was safe from further incidents.

It was then returned to a place of mooring in Gravesend so the fault could be identified and fixed.

Speaking after the rescue operation, Thames commander Andy Colley said: “This patch of the River Thames is a busy shipping channel with very large cargo vessels and could be a concern to navigational traffic.

“When tasked it was unknown if there were any casualties involved, but we arrived to find five persons on board and their vessel at anchor near the shipping lane.”