A mother told of her heart-breaking trauma as her little boy called to her as he lay trapped with his head wedged in rocks on a beach.

Kelly Brown, whose son Oliver was stuck for almost three hours as a rescue team raced a rising tide to free him, said: "My baby put his arms out and kept saying, Mummy, cuddle' but I couldn't reach him.

"Words cannot express how upset I was. I was terrified, absolutely terrified."

Mrs Brown was with her husband Karl when a game of hide and seek with their two-year-old son, on the stretch of beach from St Leonards to Hastings, turned into a frantic struggle to save his life.

The couple, of Pevensey Road, St Leonards, said their ordeal was every parent's nightmare - a child getting into trouble within the blink of an eye.

Mrs Brown, 23, said: "The family, including Oliver's four-year-old sister Jessica, had gone to the seaside on Thursday with friends to try to find some dinosaur footprints.

Mr Brown, 33, said: "I was watching Oliver. I didn't think he could get into trouble walking round the rocks on the shingles. He ducked under some big boulders, stuck his head up through a little gap and shouted Boo!'.

"Then I heard screaming and heard him shouting stuck, stuck, stuck'. It was horrendous."

Aware of the rising tide, Mrs Brown called the fire brigade at 1.21pm.

Within three minutes, firefighters from Bohemia fire station in Hastings arrived with washing up liquid and petroleum jelly but soon realised it was more complicated.

Minutes later, more than 30 paramedics, a doctor, further fire crews from Battle, Coastguards, Hastings Inshore Lifeboat, the Army and a miner's rescue team were called for assistance.

Mr Brown said: "When I saw the hydraulic cutting equipment and jack hammers arrive with the lifeboat I was worried. The rocks were stacked like dominoes, so they couldn't move one without knocking the rest and Oliver was wedged in the middle. I was relieved when they began chiselling away."

But the effect on Oliver and the family was traumatic. He was cold, wet and panicking, his head was puffed up and his eyes were bulging. In efforts to calm him, he was given sedatives, which eventually resulted in him having a drip in his leg and the sedative injected.

Mr Brown said: "The doctor said it was necessary but very painful and Oliver would scream the place down for about 30 seconds. It was horrendous."

After almost three hours he was freed and taken to the Conquest Hospital and released yesterday afternoon.

Running around his living room at full speed yesterday, the toddler was still slightly swollen but perked up at the mention of water and said: "Water, stuck in rocks, stuck."

Mrs Brown added: "Words cannot express how grateful we are to everybody who contributed to Ollie's rescue.

"Thanks especially to the coastguard and volunteer lifeboat, Lorraine Stringfellow and Lyn Stephenson for looking after Jessica and my mum.

"I don't want Oliver to be afraid of the beach and we will go back, but never again to the rocks."