A WARNING has been issued over the dangers of using inflatables in the sea.

The alert from Poole RNLI comes after two incidents in the space of five days off the Dorset coast.

On the evening of June 13, the lifeboat was launched to a report of a young child drifting east of Bournemouth Pier on an inflatable.

As the team were making their way to the scene, Coastguard confirmed the child was safe.

Shortly before 2pm on Tuesday, June 8, both Poole lifeboats were launched to a report of children on an inflatable, with one person in the water, being blown off the shore at Shell Bay just outside the entrance of the harbour.

After a short search, the children were located safely ashore.

While the youngsters involved in both incidents made it ashore or received help, lifeboat volunteers are urging people not to take the risk in the open water.

Poole lifeboat volunteer helm Jon Clark said: "We strongly advise against taking inflatables to the beach, it’s not that we don’t want people to enjoy themselves, we want people to be safe.

"Inflatables are not designed for open water and like today, it takes very little breeze for them to be swept out to sea much quicker than you can swim or paddle back. What may seem fun at first can change in a matter of seconds."