THREE Merseyside firefighters were rescued after their inflatable raft capsized in training.

The team were taking part in an exercise in the Menai Strait, in North Wales, an area notorious for its strong undercurrents, when they got into difficulty.

Holyhead Coastguard and a lifeboat were called at 1.40pm yesterday.

But the three firefighters were pulled from the water by a second Merseyside fire service craft, which was also in training, before the lifeboat arrived.

A spokeswoman for the RNLI said: “Holyhead Coastguard called out Beaumaris RNLI Lifeboat on receiving a report of a capsized inflatable near Menai Bridge with three persons in the water being washed towards Caernarfon.

“When the volunteer crew at Beaumaris lifeboat station arrived at the incident, the three people had been recovered by a sister craft, but the inflatable was pinned on to Swelly Rock Beacon.

"The lifeboat escorted the boat with the casualties on board and then returned to recover the inflatable which was then towed in.

“The area is superb for training due to the difficult conditions.

“Hopefully they learned something while they were out there.”

Peter Rushton, spokesman for Merseyside fire service, said: “We were doing some training in the area with the inflatable boats.

“One boat got into difficulty but the crew were rescued by our second craft.

“When the lifeboat arrived, they were kind enough to offer us an escort, but our team did not need rescuing.

“No one was hurt or injured.”