A MISSING family-of-five were found by the New Quay lifeboat crew whose attention was drawn by the lights of their mobile phones.

The drama happened on Monday evening of last week when the RNLI were asked to assist coastguards in the search for the family in the Penbryn area.

The inshore lifeboat, the Audrey LJ, was deployed at once, with Brett Stones at the helm accompanied by Dylan Price and Huw Williams.

“After some time searching, the family of two adults and three young children were located by the lights of their mobile phones and cameras cut off by the tide at a small beach around the headland from Penbryn,” said a spokesperson.

“They were all taken on board - a tight squeeze - and transported to the safety of Penbryn Beach where they left with the Coastguard.”

Mr Stones said afterwards that those rescued were “presumably new to the area” and had not taken the tide times into account.

“They were naturally worried and miserable when we found them, but did the correct thing in calling for help rather than attempting to climb the cliff or swim to safety,” he added.

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online now