Five people got into difficulty in water in the Salthill area of Galway yesterday after an "intimidating" dolphin was reportedly causing difficulty for swimmers.

Galway RNLI responded to the call after Valentia Coastguard received reports of the incident from a member of the public just before 730pm last night.

Witnesses said the dolphin had circled the swimmers, then swam at them in an intimidating manner, glancing off them with his tail and nose.

Mike Swan, Operations Manager at Galway Lifeboat Station told independent.ie that, by the time they arrived at the scene, a fishing boat had positioned itself between the dolphin and the swimmers.

“Before we arrived, the dolphin apparently approached the swimmers and essentially began to round them up. It wasn’t exactly an attack but the dolphin began prodding and slapping them with its flipper.”

The lifeboat, with crew members Ciaran Oliver, Stefanie Carr, David Badger and Sean King, joined the fishing vessel in keeping the dolphin away from the swimmers until they made it safely ashore.

“The swimmers then made their way to shore but we continued a parallel search up and down the beach (from Blackrock to Seapoint) to ensure that there were no other swimmers in the area," Swan said.

The swimmers were very shook by the incident but did not require medical assistance.

Swan told independent.ie that there have been other incidents “further south than Galway at Doolin at Inis Oirr”.

However, he was unsure if last evening's incident was related.

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