Villagers have been praised after they banded together to rescue two beautiful white whales that were left stranded on the coast in Russia’s far east.

Inhabitants of the Topolovka village northeast of the Magadan region joined forces to rescue the two belugas that ended up beached during low tide.

The two belugas had swum towards Topolovka village in Kolyma chasing herring, but they ended up trapped when the tide went out, leaving them stranded on the beach of the Gizhiginskaya Bay.

The toothed whales of the narwhal family included in the Red List as “near threatened” were spotted when already stuck on the shore by villagers.

They then raised the alarm among their neighbours and in total 17 of them spent most of the day keeping them wet which included covering them in wet blankets so that their skin would not dry out.

According to the news website RIA Novosti, adults and children poured water on the animals for hours, taking turns to help them survive until the next tide when the water level rose and the sea creatures could safely float back out to sea.

A spokesperson of the district administration said: “They were rescued by virtually the entire village. They poured water on them, and replaced each other in shifts. For six hours, people helped them to survive until high tide. In the end, they saved them. And the belugas went back to the sea.”

As can be seen in the video once in the water, the beluga whales made a ‘circle of honour’ seemingly as a sign of gratitude for their rescuers.

Despite the praise, locals actually admitted that it was not uncommon for the beautiful creatures to become stranded on the shore, and they had actually developed a system for helping them.