Woman critical after airlift rescue at Cefn Sidan beach
A woman is in a critical condition after she and another woman were pulled from the water off a Carmarthenshire beach.
Swansea Coastguard said the woman were cut off by water at Cefn Sidan beach.
Two RNLI inshore lifeboats from Burry Port were called to rescue them, along with an RAF rescue helicopter from Chivenor in Devon.
One woman was airlifted to Morriston Hospital in Swansea and the other was taken to West Wales General Hospital.
Swansea coastguard said the alarm was raised at 16:24 BST when a member of the public alerted them to people with dogs who were stranded on the beach.
A spokesman said one lifeboat reached one of the women and pulled her on board.
The woman was then winched into the rescue helicopter and flown to Morriston Hospital, the spokesman said.
The second lifeboat pulled the other woman from the water and returned to their base, from where the woman was taken to hospital in Carmarthen by ambulance.
Dyfed-Powys Police said: "The tide was on its way into shore.
"The coastguard and the RNLI carried out the sea rescue, Dyfed-Powys Police were on hand for assistance."
The coastguard spokesman said: "The tide is very dangerous in the Loughor estuary. The tide does coming in very quickly."
He said the service was dealing with a number of other tide-related alerts in the area at the time.