A FAMILY saved a baby seal’s life after finding it badly injured and bleeding on the beach in Frinton.

Lisa Ursell took daughter Abbie and her friend Jess, both aged nine, to the beach last week when the youngsters had a day off school.

But they made a grim discovery, finding the seal pup slumped on the sand and covered in wounds.

She said: "I called my husband and his brother, and we tried calling the RSPCA for help but no-one was available to come out to us.

“They advised us not to touch the seal, but the tide was coming in and would have dragged the seal away from the beach. We had to do something.”

The men covered the seal’s mouth with a towel so it could not bite them, then lifted it into a borrowed dog carrier.

They rushed the seal to Wildlives rescue centre in Thorrington.

Wildlives owner Rosie Catford said the beachgoers had saved the seal pup’s life by acting so quickly.

“She was in a very bad way when she got to us. She had clearly been attacked by a dog on the beach and had multiple serious injuries.

“There were bite marks all over her head, abdomen and flippers, and the back tail flipper is possibly broken."

Rosie rehydrated the seal, treated its wounds and started it on a course of antibiotics.

Once it was stabilised and out of danger, the seal pup was taken to a specialist RSPCA unit in East Winch.