Falmouth's all weather lifeboat towed a French vessel with a broken rudder three and a half miles back to Falmouth on Sunday morning following an emergency broadcast.

The 8.5 metre yacht Reder Vras, with four people on board, had been on passage from France to the UK when its rudder fixings failed and it was left without steering south of Pendennis Point.

Falmouth coastguard called the RNLI at around 11.20am after the vessel issued an emergency pan-pan signal, to which the angling boat Anglo Dawn also responded.

While the Anglo Dawn stood by the yacht, the coastguard had diverted the lifeboat to help the dive boat Patrice II which was one mile north of the Manacle Buoy and had reported engine difficulties, however these were quickly solved and the lifeboat arrived on scene with the Reder Vras just before noon.

The yacht was taken in tow and the Anglo Dawn was released to return to its fishing.

An RNLI spokesperson said: "The yacht was towed towards Falmouth where at 12.56 in the shelter of Pendennis Point the yacht was strapped alongside the lifeboat before being taken into the inner harbour where the yacht was safely moored alongside the Port Pendennis Marina."

They added: "The crew were well equipped and were very grateful for the assistance they received."