'Heart in mouth' moment teens clamber along Weston-super-Mare's crumbling Birnbeck Pier

• Watch footage of the two children walking on the rotting walkway

Two children sparked a "heart in mouth" rescue mission when they were spotted clambering along Birnbeck Pier's rotting walkway.

The Victorian pier has been closed to the public for years and large sections of it have fallen away completely.

On Tuesday 30 May, the team at Weston Lifeboat Station were called to the pier after two children were seen walking along it.

A spokesperson for the RNLI team said: "As the charity lifeboat arrived at the island, the two youths decided to clamber back across the condemned, broken walkway, the way they had come.

"The lifeboat remained nearby amid fears the children could fall through the rotten boards as they climbed around gaps in the walkway."

Lifeboat operarations manager Chris Ware said at one point one of the children slipped as they tried to avoid a large hole.

"My heart was in my mouth watching the young teens on the walkway," he said.

"It was pure luck they didn't end up in the water with a significant injury."

There have been multiple plans to restore the historic pier through the years, the most recent of which involves North Somerset Council and the RNLI.

The RNLI says it hopes to receive confirmation in the coming weeks that it can finally carry out its plans to make the pier safe, with the lifeboat set to return to operating from the island.