A volunteer crew member at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution was abused by two members of the public over the weekend, the charity has said.
On Friday evening, the charity’s Tower Lifeboat station, under Waterloo Bridge on the north side of the River Thames, reported crew members being abused as they reported for duty.
In a tweet, Tower RNLI said: “We are shocked and saddened to report some of our volunteer crew were verbally assaulted due to their role when reporting for duty tonight. This behaviour will not be tolerated. Thank you @metpoliceuk for your support.”
The charity declined to confirm the nature of the alleged abuse.
The role of the RNLI’s lifeboat crews came under fire earlier this month after it was accused of becoming “a taxi service for illegal immigration”.
The charity defended itself against the accusation after some newspapers published images of its lifeboats returning from saving people who had been trying to cross the English Channel to reach the UK.
In response to the incident over the weekend, the charity said: “On Friday 23 July at approximately 10pm, a crew member arriving at Tower Lifeboat Station was subject to verbal abuse from two members of the public. This was reported to the Metropolitan Police who are now looking into the incident.”