Two people have been rescued after they had to abandon their sinking fishing boat and take to a life raft.

The pair issued a Mayday call to report that their fishing vessel was taking on significant amounts of water in the vicinity of Lismore island near Oban, Scotland, at around 3am on Thursday, the Coastguard said.

They abandoned the boat and climbed on to their life raft where they stayed until they were rescued towards 4am.

The RNLI Oban all-weather lifeboat went to the scene and rescued the pair before taking them back to Oban in Argyll and Bute, arriving at around 5am.

The lifeboat reached the scene before a Coastguard helicopter which was also called out to the incident.

A Coastguard spokesman said: “We had calm weather which was a blessing.

“Thankfully it was quite close to Lismore island and the sea was reasonably benign for them.”

The crew were said to be fine though a bit shaken after the experience.

The boat, a commercial fishing vessel, is now partially submerged.