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A FAMILY of five - including two teenage children - were rescued after their boat hit rocks in Loch Ness.

Loch Ness RNLI volunteers launched to save the holidaymakers from Belgium after the cruiser hit submerged rocks near Cherry Island, about one mile north of Fort Augustus.

The tourists hit problems around 2pm on Friday.

Crew members, Linda Izquierdo Ross, Joy Cameron and Garry MacLeod took the Atlantic 75 class lifeboat, Colin James Daniel, to the scene.

After confirming that there were no injuries and that the vessel was still watertight, a tow was established and the vessel pulled from the rocks before being escorted to Fort Augustus.

Crew member Martin Douglas said: "This is something we train for regularly as there a quite a few areas on the loch where vessels can run aground.

"We were extremely fortunate to have Linda on board the lifeboat as French is one of the many languages she can speak fluently.

"I'm sure this played a significant part in helping and reassuring the family."

Volunteers from the Inverness Coastguard team also responded and were on hand at Fort Augustus to help with mooring the cruiser and to carry out further checks.

The entire rescue operation was coordinated by the duty team in the Aberdeen Coastguard Operations Centre.​