A dog was rescued from the sea at Hastings, East Sussex, five days after going missing.

The UK Coastguard received a 999 call from a member of the public at 9.30am yesterday, reporting that a dog had chased a seagull into the sea on Hastings beach.

Nick Jury, a senior coastguard operations officer, based at Hastings, spotted the dog in the water and guided the RNLI inshore lifeboat and its volunteer crew to the right place to rescue it.

Storm, a seven-year-old long-haired German Shepherd who had been missing since Sunday, was reunited with his happy owner at the station, before going to the vets for a check-up.

Storm’s owner said: ‘I have been out looking for Storm since he went missing on Sunday and last night I was out until midnight searching for him. When I got the call this morning that he was on the beach, I was over the moon. ‘But when I got down to the beach he’d already swam out to sea. I was just frantic to get him back. The Coastguard reassured me the whole time, talking me through the rescue process and keeping me updated on how they were conducting the search. I just can’t thank them all enough for bringing him safely home.’

UK Coastguard Nick Jury said: ‘This is a very happy ending for Storm. The owners had put up posters informing people that he was missing and he was spotted on the beach this morning by a member of the public. By chance, the dog’s owner was also in the area searching for him.

‘I had spotted the dog in the water and was able to guide the RNLI Hastings inshore lifeboat to Storm, by which time he was about one mile out to sea. He was completely exhausted when the RNLI reached him and he was rescued just in the nick of time.’

He added: ‘His owners and the members of the public did exactly the right thing by calling the UK Coastguard and not attempting to rescue him themselves – which is the best advice we offer dog owners. We want people to enjoy the coast and this simple measure could save lives.’