Two British adventurers had to be rescued by the US coast guard off Alaska after they found themselves stranded on sea ice in the Bering Strait. Neil Laughton and James Bingham were helicoptered back to safety, seen in the dramatic footage above.

The two were attempting to cross half of the Bering Strait, the section of sea between Alaska and Russia, as practice before an attempt at the full crossing in 2017. At some point in the journey, the two realised that they were stranded as the ice was too thick to kayak through but too thin to walk on. They were stuck in their kayaks for 12 hours, exposed to the harsh conditions around them.

Laughton and Bingham wrote on Facebook that they were safely back in Nome after "reluctantly" calling the coast guard but say that "their support and the assets deployed to help were beyond anything you could imagine. We are humbled by their service and can't thank them enough".

Earlier in their attempt, Laughton tweeted a picture of the duo and said: "Not ideal kayaking conditions! Ice was too thin to walk on so little choice on our journey across the Bering Strait"

According to Alaska Public Media, Bingham said that global warming had cause the conditions that led to them being stranded. "[Global warming] makes what was already a challenging expedition close to impossible."

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