Two men had to fight to stay alive for six hours when their boat sank miles off shore in the dark.

Arabic newspaper Emarat Al Youm reported that the two Emirati men had gone out fishing at about 4pm on Tuesday but their boat started to sink two hours into the trip. They initially set off distress signals but decided to swim to shore about 6.30pm. They swam for about six hours in the cold waters, before being rescued by the maritime team of Dubai Police. They were pulled to safety, but one of them is in a critical condition.

One of the men, Khalid Al Suwaidi told of the difficult swim in high tides and darkness, explaining how his friend Mohammed Ahmed ‘almost died’ as his body temperature dipped: “We promised each other that we will either live or die together. When my friend almost collapsed with his body temperature dipping below 28 degrees, I kept his spirits up by talking of his children.”

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Suwaidi, who is certified to dive, told the newspaper how they swam upstream until they saw The World Islands from a distance, at around midnight. He went on to say that boats did pass them but didn’t stop, and both men feared that one of the boats would hit them.

“We were almost about to surrender, when we saw signs of hope. We began waving and some beach-goers spotted us and alerted the Maritime rescue team.”

Both men were taken to hospital, however, Ahmed is critical.