OVER 120 people were stranded after their historic Dunkirk boat got stuck in the mud just a few hundred metres from Kew Pier.

Princess Freda ran aground on Saturday August 10 after losing propulsion due to her propellor snagging on debris in the river.

The boat - one of the Dunkirk 'Little Ships' which helped evacuate the British Army from France in 1940 - was only a few hundred metres from its destination of Kew Pier when it got stuck on the opposite Surrey shore.

A Chiswick RNLI lifeboat crew came to the rescue and attached a towline to pull the vessel out of the mud, they then guided the boat to the pier where all 122 passengers disembarked safely.