A member of the Red Devils, the British Army's parachute display team, has been saved by a colleague after his parachute failed to open correctly during a performance.

Videos of the dramatic near-crash show one soldier with a fully open parachute wrapping his legs around the ropes of his team-mate's tangled parachute below, a manoeuvre called a stack.

Both made a safe landing in the water at Queens Dock near the Whitehaven Air Show in Cumbria.

Onlooker Lucy Milne told BBC Breakfast: "He was violently kicking his legs and he was trying to get free or trying to manoeuvre.

"Above him was another man tangled up in his parachute. His parachute was collapsed. They started picking up speed and he was wiggling his legs even more.

"It was amazing how he managed to get into the water and not hurt himself or the man above him."

Another spectator said on the Whitehaven Air Show's Facebook page: "It was awful watching them struggling, especially when they veered off course — until we realised they were purposely targeting the biggest area of water for ditching into."

The air show posted on its Facebook page that both parachutists were safe and it was the first time in 25 years the Red Devils have had a parachute fail.

Sergeant Baz Loftus, safety operations manager for the Red Devils, told the Daily Mail that investigations would be carried out to assess whether it was an individual or mechanical error.

The Red Devils, formed in 1963, are the official parachute display team of both the Parachute Regiment and the British Army and carry out more than 60 parachute displays at public events each year to promote recruitment.

The team is currently manned by 12 serving soldiers and each member has served at least three years in the Parachute Regiment Battalion and taken part in operational tours of duty.

Reuters