Two students who went for a nap in a beached boat were saved by their mobile phone after waking up at sea.

Likhan Ghosh, 20, and Saajam Miah, 19, owe their lives to Coastguards who spotted the tiny craft as it drifted off the coast, slowly filling with water in the early hours of today.

With just minutes until the boat went down, the terrified pair were pulled out of the ice-cold water by a lifeboat crew.

A Shoreham Coastguard officer said: "The boat only had a couple of inches above the waterline. Another few minutes and we'd have been looking at a tragedy."

Likhan, of Hallett Road, Brighton, said: "Goodness knows what would have happened if my phone hadn't worked."

He and Saajam, of Montford Close, Shoreham, had been celebrating the end of their exams at a university in London.

The pair were staying in a Worthing hotel and the walk back proved tiring. So when they spotted the boat pulled high up on the beach at Shoreham they jumped in and dozed off.

A spokesman for the RNLI said: "Five hours later, at around 1.30am, they awoke to find themselves wet, at sea, in the pitch black, in a boat that was awash and slowly sinking and with a force five wind pushing them farther out to sea.

"Fortunately one of the students had his mobile phone with him and managed to alert the authorities to their plight with a 999 call, even though they didn't know exactly where they were.

"Luckily one of Shoreham's Coastguard officers caught a glimpse of the boat in his headlights as he rounded Splash Point in Worthing and was able to direct the lifeboat to their approximate position."

The duo were recovered about half a mile east of Worthing pier and were taken to Shoreham lifeboat station for a medical check.

Shoreham lifeboat coxswain Peter Huxtable said: "As we came alongside we could see how close the boat was to going down.

"The water this time of year is still extremely cold. If the boat had sunk before the lifeboat arrived it is highly unlikely they would have survived."