Coastguard called to search for missing man believed to be off the coast of Seaham

The coastguard team received the call during the weekly training session at around 7.15pm on Thursday, July 11, to join the search for the missing man.

It was among a number of call outs teams attended on the evening of Thursday.

A spokesman for Seaham coastguard said “We split in to two search teams with one team heading north from our station searching the promenade, beach and cliff tops to Ryhope Dene.

“Team two met with police at noses point to gather more information and a search of the blast beach, coastal path and cliff tops to Hawthorn Hive.

“With the male still not located we returned to the RV point and waited for further information from police who were checking addresses of friends and family.

“While this was happening the team travelled to Easington and searched cliff tops and coastal path from Fox Holes to White Lea Farm. With nothing found and no further information to go on we stood down and returned to station.”

After returning to station teams were alerted to a small dinghy that had broken down just off Featherbed Rock. With the dinghy in sight from the station we could see that it had power and was returning to one of the ramps on the promenade.

The team were then tasked along with Hartlepool Coastguard Rescue Team again to assist Durham Constabulary with an incident at Easington which was safely resolved.