ROSS PARRY SYNDICATION: These pictures show the heart-stopping moment that two teens were winched to safety after becoming trapped on a precarious cliff ledge with the sea crashing just feet below.

The pair were at risk of being swept off the sheer cliff face after they became stranded by the strong waves when they were cut off by the tide while out searching for fossils.

Daring coastguards and a lifeboat crew rushed to the scene after the pair, believed to be 15 and 16-years-old, called 999 from a mobile phone.

The frightened boys had scrambled on to the ledge 100ft down a cliff with no chance of escape and were stuck there for more than an hour before they called for help.

The lads were spotted by a lifeboat crew on a ledge four metres up the cliff at Saltwick Bay, Whitby, North Yorks.

Coastguard Steven Bunt bravely went down the cliff on a rope to secure the two and put lifejackets on them before they were winched into an RAF Sea King helicopter.