A lifeboat had to rescue someone from a sinking boat off the coast of Essex this afternoon.

East Anglian Daily Times: Walton lifeboat rescues man from Misty Lady five miles off shore. Image: Walton RNLIWalton lifeboat rescues man from Misty Lady five miles off shore. Image: Walton RNLI (Image: Archant)

The incident happened around five miles off Walton Pier at 1.30pm.

Coastguard teams were alerted after a radio signal from the only person on the 33ft vessel reporting he was taking on water.

The Walton RNLI lifeboat crew went to the man’s aid and helped to pump water from the boat, as well as rescuing the man from a life raft.

A spokesman from the lifeboat station said the boat was just “a couple of inches” above the water when the crew’s engineer found the problem was a faulty exhaust valve, which was sucking in water instead of expelling hot gas.

East Anglian Daily Times: Walton lifeboat rescues man from life raft of Misty Lady five miles off shore. Image: Walton RNLIWalton lifeboat rescues man from life raft of Misty Lady five miles off shore. Image: Walton RNLI (Image: Archant)

The rescue team then bent the exhaust above the water line and continued to pump out the vessel, before it towing it back to Titchmarsh Marina.

The lifeboat returned to the marina at around 4.30pm.