Aberdyfi Lifeboat was called out at 2.57pm on 21 June following a report of an iPhone SOS activation half a mile east of the lifeboat station.

The crew attended the scene but with no sign of anyone, continued to search upstream where another boat and paddle-boarders were located.

They confirmed they were okay and hadn't set off an SOS alert, but said a crew member of another boat had lost an iPhone overboard.

The lifeboat crew headed back to the original location and met the second boat, and discovered the alert-issuing phone had been recovered from the seabed.

Helm Wil Stockford said: “We've responded to many things over the years, but turning out to an automatic mobile phone SOS is a first for us.”