Last updated at 16:16 04 August 2007

It was the moment when "wish you were here" became "wish I were anywhere but here".

This holidaymaker found herself stranded in her deckchair as the tide came in and started lapping at her feet. The woman, estimated by some onlookers to weigh as much as 20 stone, had been unable to get out of the chair after its legs became firmly wedged in the shingle.

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Other day trippers awaking from their afternoon naps nearby had managed to scramble to safety because their deckchairs were resting on firmer foundations.

But it took coastguards in yellow jumpsuits and wellington boots to rescue the turbanwearing tourist, said to be 49 and from Belgium. Two of them prised her free just as the water came up the beach, watched by a crowd of onlookers.

Ronald Coleman, 74, one of those who witnessed the distressing scene at Westcliffon-Sea, Essex, said: "The tide was racing in. She was lucky."