A crew attempting to row around Great Britain has been rescued for the second time in just over a week.

The five-strong crew were rescued from the GB Row Challenger near Scotland's Mull of Kintyre in the early hours of Monday.

The Belfast Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre was notified of the emergency and a coastguard helicopter was dispatched to airlift the crew.

They were rescued without harm but have decided to retire from their attempt.

The crew were previously rescued on 26 June after capsizing and eventually righting their boat again in bad weather near the County Down coast of Northern Ireland.

During that weekend, all three crews taking part in the challenge had to be rescued near the coastlines of Northern Ireland and Wales in separate incidents.

The boats were taking part in the GB Row Challenge to circumnavigate Great Britain and collect environmental data in a project with the University of Portsmouth. 

Crew 'safe and well'

HM Coastguard responded to a mayday call from the GB Row Challenger vessle at about 00:30 BST on Monday morning.

A spokeswoman for the Coastguard said a helicopter was deployed from Prestwick as well as another coastguard team from Campbeltown in Scotland and two RNLI lifeboats - one from Campbeltown and the other from Cushendall in Northern Ireland.

After Monday's incident, the decision was taken for the crew to retire from the "epic challenge" following advice from the RNLI.

A spokesman for the GB Row Challenge said: "Collectively, we would like to thank the Coastguard and RNLI who brought the crew from GB Row Challenger to safety last night.

"This followed bad weather and difficult seas off the Mull of Kintyre."

The spokesman added that the crew were "safe and well and extremely grateful for the support they received".

He added: "The crew were collecting data to understand the impact of human activity on marine ecosystems and climate change."