A VAN was recovered from Brean beach by Burnham-on-Sea Coastguard when it was left stranded after being caught by an incoming tide. 

Burnham Coastguard were called at around 6pm yesterday (June 23) to recover the Renault Kangoo van after the vehicle's occupants had taken a walk up to Brean Down and not realised the incoming tide would reach their van. 

A Brean beach warden alerted the coastguard when they failed to find the van's owners after discovering water lapping at the vehicle's wheel arches amid concerns for their safety. 

A spokesman for Burnham Coastguard said: "We were paged as according to reports onlookers were advising the owner to wade out and try and drive it out of the water.

"BARB Hovercraft were also paged so they could winch the vehicle out once the tide had receded.

"We arrived on scene and liaised with the beach warden who said that he had advised the owner against going out and he did the sensible thing and waited for assistance.

"Once the water had gone back out BARB cracked on with the recovery, and after a bit of digging and a quick pull it was freed from the sand and towed back up to safe ground where they awaited a recovery truck. 

"It's an easy mistake to make if you don't know the area, the tide comes in fast and lucky it wasn't a real high one today.

"If you are unlucky enough to have this happen to you, please DO NOT try to reach your vehicle, if you get in it you may get stuck, or worse it may roll over with you in it.

BARB's volunteers assisted in the recovery of the van and dug the vehicle out of the wet sand once the tide had receded. 

They then towed the van to safety. 

A spokesman for BARB said: "The embarrassed owner was very grateful for our help and plans to make a donation to BARB."