Five children, all members of the same family, have been rescued from the sea off a beach in Co Down.
The incident occurred last night at Minerstown on the Co Down coast.
Emergency services were alerted at 9.30pm that the five children, all siblings, had been trapped by a rising tide.
By the time the coastguard arrived, two off-duty nurses had waded out to the children and helped bring them ashore.
They were brought to a nearby house until ambulances arrived to take them to hospital.
In a statement Newcastle Coastguard praised the actions of the two nurses.
"When two initial responders from the coastguard team arrived at the beach, they found the children had been brought ashore by two off-duty nurses who spotted that the children were in danger and bravely waded into the sea to bring them to safety.
"The remainder of the Newcastle team arrived on scene, followed by Kilkeel Coastguard team and Newcastle RNLI's inshore lifeboat, and provided casualty care for the five children who needed varying degrees of care.
"The casualties were taken to a nearby house for warmth while waiting for paramedics who arrived and took the children to the Ulster Hospital.
"Newcastle Coastguard team would like to pay tribute to the two off-duty nurses who waded into the water to rescue the children."
(Image: Newcastle Coastguard)
They praised the nurses' "remarkable bravery and fortitude" during what they described as a "rapidly deteriorating situation"
"The women displayed outstanding courage, ignoring their own safety to ensure the children were not only brought ashore but cared for until the arrival of the emergency services.
"We would like to thank the owner of the nearby house for opening their doors to the children while we waited for the paramedics to arrive and to the shore team at Newcastle RNLI who brought additional supplies of oxygen to the scene by road."
