A Royal Navy minehunter built in Southampton has seen its first action in a dramatic rescue.

HMS Blyth - built by Vosper Thorneycroft in Woolston and only commissioned from Portsmouth last week - was diverted to the Bristol Channel to help a sinking cargo vessel at the weekend.

Eight merchant sailors were rescued from the sea in a joint operation between the warship and an RAF rescue helicopter from Chivenor in Devon.

The crew abandoned the Dina at 6.30am after issuing a Mayday call warning that their ship was sinking around 35 miles south west of the Pembrokeshire coast.

When the rescuers arrived they found four of the crew in a life raft. The remaining four had jumped directly into the sea, a Royal Navy spokesman said.

The warship sent a landing craft to pick up the sailors who had been in the sea for an hour and a half. The sailors were airlifted to Withybush General Hospital near Carmarthen in south Wales.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: "It was lucky HMS Blyth was only six miles away. The crew could have been in the cold sea for a lot longer."

A spokesman for Milford Haven coastguard said the captain of the ship was suffering from mild hypothermia but otherwise the sailors were uninjured.

It is not yet known what caused the ship to begin sinking.