AN EVENING SWIM organised on social networking site Facebook nearly claimed the lives of half of those taking part.

Ian Pedrick, operations director of Hope Cove Lifeboat, branded the event 'ludicrous' after the crew of the lifeboat helped to prevent a large-scale disaster at Bantham Beach on Saturday – saving the lives of 11 people.

The crew were called out late on Saturday evening to reports of a swimmer in difficulties at Burgh Island.

When they arrived on scene he had made it back to shore, but the lifeboat discovered a group of 22 people attempting to swim around Burgh Island in heavy seas.

The group were attempting to circumnavigate the island as part of an impromptu swim organised on Facebook.

Some of the 11 swimmers rescued by the lifeboat crew were in a very poor condition, being sick in the water and thoroughly exhausted. The other 11 made it back to the beach under their own steam.

The lifeboat crew were unwilling to beach the boat due to the heavy conditions, but they had to at one point because one of the female swimmers they picked up from the water was too weak to even wade in from the shallows.

For more on this story, see this week's Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette