A teenager was hailed a hero after rescuing two men who fell into the sea from an inflatable toy boat.

Archie Law, 15, raced from his beachside home on the Isle of Skye yesterday and launched his outboard-powered dinghy to pull the pair to safety.

A lifeboat crew who were also heading to the scene praised the Portree High School pupil for preventing a 'more serious situation'.

But it was all in a day's work for Archie, who was back out on the water at 6am the next day on a fishing trip.

'He just loves the sea and that is probably where he will end up working,' his mother Tansy said.

'I am so proud of him. He was looking out with his binoculars and spotted the two men in trouble.

'They were in an orange inflatable dinghy without lifejackets and were only wearing flip-flops. Their mobile phone was wet too.

'Archie was off like a rocket. He jumped into his Pioneer dinghy and pulled them from the water. They were cold.

 'It was a good job he reached them when he did and that he spotted them when he did.

'He is always watching the sea. He was up again at 5.30am today and back out fishing. He has his own boat for creel fishing. He just loves the sea.'

The alarm was raised shortly after 9:00pm on June 20, after the UK Coastguard received reports of two males in difficulty in the water off Broadford Bay, after falling from the blow up inflatable boat.

A Kyle of Lochalsh Lifeboat launched within 10 minutes, and sped towards the last known location.

On the way to the scene, the crew discovered that Archie had also seen the people in distress, and had gone out in his own boat and managed to rescue them and take them back to shore safely.

Once it was established that everyone was safe and there were no injuries, the lifeboat then returned to station to be cleaned, refuelled and made ready for service.

Speaking of the incident, Andrew MacDonald, helm at Kyle RNLI said: 'Thanks to the quick thinking of the teenager going out in his own boat to rescue the two casualties, a far more serious situation was averted.

'We'd like to remind people that blow up inflatable toys should be kept for use in swimming pools and not open water, and to always ensure that you have lifejackets on and a means of communicating to the emergency services if you get into any difficulty.'

It comes as temperatures are set to climb to a record-breaking 38C next week as a 'heat dome' is set to hit Britain, with the Met Office issuing a new four-day warning for extreme weather.

Record highs of 38C have been forecast for Wednesday and Thursday by the national weather service – breaking June's highest-ever recorded temperature of a blistering 35.6C in Southampton in 1976 and Camden Square in 1957.

In London, temperatures will rise to a scorching 38C across the two days, while Birmingham will see similar highs of 35C on Wednesday and 37C on Thursday.

Amber extreme heat warnings have been extended by the Met Office from Monday and Tuesday to include Wednesday and Thursday, covering much of southern England and Wales, the East and West Midlands, the South West and South East England, as well as the East of England.

The heat is expected to remain sweltering throughout next week as tropical nights have been predicted in areas where temperatures remain above 20C.

Dew points – indicative of the air's humidity – are also forecast to be around 22C on Wednesday and Thursday, surpassing the record-breaking July 2022 heatwave, when they remained unusually low, mostly in the single figures, meaning the heat was oppressive.