Wirral Coastguard and the RNLI hovercraft were scrambled to find two people who had become lost in fog on Hoylake beach and possibly cut off by the tide.
The incident happened shortly before 11am this morning.
In a post on Facebook, Wirral Coastguard said: “Once the team arrived on scene we established the casualty’s last known position using the What3Words app.
“The decision was then made to commit an off road vehicle to the beach to transport coastguard rescue officers nearer to the casualty’s last known position. Hoylake Hovercraft was also requested to assist with the search.
“In an attempt to alert the casualties of a safe direction of travel we used the vehicle lights and sirens as a signal, then after a short search on foot the 2 people were spotted in thick fog and were safely escorted back to shore with some important safety advice given.”
They added: “Thankfully this incident was concluded safely and relatively quickly, however it had the potential to be very serious due to the severity of the fog.
“We would advise beach walkers to stay close to the promenade if conditions are foggy as it’s very easy to get disorientated and conditions can deteriorate rapidly.”