COASTGUARDS have warned people of the dangers of swimming under the influence of alcohol after a young woman was rescued from the water off Walton.

Walton Coastguard’s rescue team were alerted to a swimmer struggling in the sea west of Walton Pier.

The team, which was conducting water rescue training at the time, quickly responded to assist the woman who was being held up by three friends.

“We were down on the beach for our water rescue assessment,” said station officer Andy Rutson-Edwards.

“We had just finished and were going back to our vehicles when someone on the pier shouted to say there were four people in the water in difficulty on the other side of the pier.

“There were two men and two women in the water, about 100 metres out.

“They had been drinking and one of the women, who was aged about 20, had got into difficulty and the others were trying to support her and keep her head above the water.

“She appeared unconscious and was not in a very good way.”

The team’s rescue swimmer, deputy station officer James Whitfield swam out to meet the group, who were visiting Walton for the day.

Mr Whitfield said: “I stabilised the casualty and brought her back towards the shore.

“Half way back the team met us with a floating stretcher, which we put her on.

“She was quite distressed and had taken on quite a bit of water.

“We gave her first aid on the beach until the ambulance service arrived.”

The woman was handed over to the East of England Ambulance Service and was taken to Colchester Hospital for further treatment.

The incident happened at 8pm on Saturday.

“In this case the casualty had been drinking during the day,” added Mr Whitfield.

“We strongly recommend that after consuming alcohol that you do not enter the water.

“Luckily we were on the same beach when this incident occurred or this may have been a lot worse.”

The incident comes after seafront bosses issued a warning to swimmers about the dangers of drinking alcohol before taking to the water.

Two people under the influence of alcohol had to be helped from the sea close to Clacton Pier earlier this month.

The man and women were brought ashore and when the woman got to the water’s edge she suffered an asthma attack for which she received first aid but did not require an ambulance.