Onlookers gathered on Penmaenmawr seafront last night as two vans quickly became submerged by the rising tide. Those involved made countless, futile attempts to push the vans with jet skis, as shown at 2:23 in the video.

With Llandudno's famous Great Orme in the background and daylight fading, multiple attempts were made to free the vehicles using jet skis, tow ropes and desperate pushing by hand - all to no avail.

By around 19:45, the time of the first video, two vans can be seen in the water hundreds of metres across the sand from a short concrete slipway. The light is still good under a glorious autumn sunset, but within 25 minutes, darkness has fallen, the smaller van is almost fully submerged, and the tide has reached the slipway.

It's not known how the vans ended up stuck on the beach, but as jet skis were used in the desperate rescue attempts, it's likely they were attempting to get the jet skis out of the water when the first van became stuck, leading both vehicles to be caught out by the speed of the tide.

After attempting to stretch a tow cable hundreds of meters through the sea from a pick-up truck on the slipway, a decision was made to move the pick-up closer. The watching crowd gasped when it appeared this third vehicle had also become stuck in the sea, but still being near the slipway, a Land Rover type vehicle from recovery firm NW Recovery / North Wales Recovery was able to bring it back to the shore within a few minutes.

By 20:15, it was almost completely dark and those attempting to save the vehicles began to give up. A gathered crowd of around a hundred people along the beach, promenade and a flyover, began to disperse. Dozens more people had spotted the vans in the sea from the A 55 dual carriageway and stopped in the adjacent car park to watch and take photos. Some in the crowd believed the larger white van was a new 24 plate.

Conwy Council's website confirms that jet skis and other powered craft are not permitted to be launched from this slip way in Penmaenmawr.