The Galway inshore lifeboat today rescued three women who were trapped by a rising tide on rocks off Mutton Island in Galway Bay.
A person on the shore saw the women in distress and used a mobile phone to call 999.
This call was routed through to the Malin Head Coastguard station. At 2.06 p.m. they passed the message onto the Valencia coastguard, in whose area Galway Bay falls, of the emergency.
At 2.18 p.m. a rescue boat was on the scene.
By 2.23 p.m. the women were on-board the rescue vessel.
At 2.26 p.m. an ambulance was called for.
The ambulance met the boat on the causeway at Salthill at 2.29 p.m.
The women, two of whom are in their 20s, with the third in her 50s, were then taken to hospital. One of them is being treated for hypothermia.
A rescue helicopter arrived on the scene at 2.30 p.m. but was not required, aspokesman for the Valencia coastguard told ireland.com.
