Four 'people' became stuck in mud in Margate Harbour today and needed fire crews, the coastguard and police to pull them to safety.

However, it was only dummies being used and the emergency rescue was a joint training exercise between the services.

The training took place on the harbour arm in Margate and allowed those involved to use specialist equipment designed for these situations.

It also helped outline the roles each emergency service would play in such a rescue.

The scenario the crews faced involved a sequence of individuals who had either fallen from the harbour arm or had become trapped in the mud at low tide.

Margate fire service manager Nick Salt said: “The mud rescue scenarios deliberately replicated the conditions all emergency services might face during an incident of this type, where it’s essential that we work closely with our partner emergency service colleagues.

"We’re called to a wide range of challenging incidents and have to work under pressure, often in difficult working spaces.

"Our job is about saving lives and achieving the best possible outcome for those trapped or injured as quickly and effectively as possible.

"These mud rescues today provided an excellent opportunity for both KFRS and the Coastguard teams to test our response, incident command, casualty handling and time critical care skills."