An 11-year-old girl has been taken to Dr Gray’s in Elgin after having to be rescued from the Moray Firth this afternoon.
The girl is understood to have swallowed sea water during an incident that also involved two young males who were in trouble off Lossiemouth’s East Beach.
A spokesman for the Aberdeen Coastguard said that two adults helped bring all three children out of the sea. One of RAF Lossiemouth’s rescue helicopters was also called to the scene with coastguard teams based in Lossiemouth and Burghead.
All three children were back on land by the time the helicopter arrived on the scene.
A Police spokesman said: “Just before 4.45pm the ambulance requested assistance from us. The original call was that there were two males in the water at East Beach Lossiemouth, so we deployed, as did the coastguard and a search and rescue helicopter from Lossiemouth.
“There were three people in the water, one was an 11-year-old female. They are just in shock it would appear. The young female has been taken to Doctor Gray’s Hospital, she has swallowed water.”
An ambulance spokesman said the girl was taken to the Elgin hospital “as a precaution”, adding: “The girl was out of the water by the time we arrived.”
Describing the rescue on her personal Facebook page was Elgin woman Ailsa Stinson, who expressed her pride in husband Rich Stinson who swam out to rescue the stricken girl.
Mrs Stinson said: “I know he’s going to be embarrassed, but words can’t describe how immensely proud I am of Rich for selflessly diving in to the water, swimming out to sea and saving a drowning girl’s life this afternoon.
“I can’t believe how brave he was. I’m still shaking with shock. Not just my hero it seems.”
Co-ordinating the emergency response was Aberdeen Coastguard, for whom a spokesman said: “We had a couple of kids in the water at Lossiemouth, but they were brought out by the parents about an hour ago, they were fine.
“A member of the public alerted us. The original report was two people, but it looks like there was only one that was actually in trouble.”