Burnham-On-Sea’s Coastguard and BARB rescue hovercraft crews were called to Weston on Friday evening (November 16th) amid concern that a vulnerable person was on the mud flats.
Crews were called to Uphill beach at 6.45pm to launch a night-time search of the tideline and surrounding area for the person.
“We were alerted to reports of a vulnerable person that may have walked onto the mud flats of Weston Bay,” said a spokesman.
“This very quickly turned into a multi-agency response involving Burnham Coastguard Rescue Team, Clevedon Coastguard Rescue Team, BARB Search & Rescue, RNLI Weston Lifeboat Station, Avon Fire & Rescue Service, Avon and Somerset Police and The Beach Rangers.”
“As we were at low tide both the BARB hovercrafts swept the mudflats whilst Coastguard foot patrols were launched to search the dunes and upper beach area.”
“The RNLI carried out a sweep of the tide line, whilst launching illumination flares to ensure we had good visibility of the area.”
“Between all services we had searched the entire beach and mudflats and were confident that if there was anyone out there we would have spotted them.”
“All assets were stood down and returned to their respective bases to clean any necessary kit.”
“Incidents like this show why all the training we do in our spare time is so important. Whilst each asset offers a different service when it comes to the crunch we all work together as one big team.”
