Coastguards were called out at 10.31am when the alarm was raised by a caller reporting a girl in difficulty.
A spokesman said: “Sunday started off slowly with only a small number of people on the beach at 10:30am which was a blessing in disguise when we were tasked to reports of an 18-year-old girl having a heart attack on the beach just in front of our station.”
“The team quickly gathered and set off to find the person with no delay. We picked up the defibrillator from the side of the BARB building and made our way to the beach.”
“Along the way, we spoke to the RNLI Lifeguards who were on duty and had not had any reports of anyone in distress. With there only being a small amount of people on the beach it was soon realised that there didn’t seem to be anyone in medical distress.”
“The team carried out a foot search along the beach and top of the seawall and roadside and also around B&M car park with nothing found, while we were doing this the RNLI lifeguards were on the quad bike up and down the beach looking for anyone who might have called it in with still nothing found.”
“We then assembled all our Coastguard team members and the RNLI Lifeguards at the top of the jetty and the Beach Warden put out an announcement for anyone who was in need of medical attention to make their self known to any of the rescue personnel.”
“Still no one responded and there was no one fitting the description of the person in the local vicinity. Once again, we carried out a foot search of the area just to ensure there was no one in any difficulty who wasn’t able to respond but no such person was found.”
“In a way, this is a good thing because it means there hopefully wasn’t someone in extreme distress or need of medical attention. But we also hope this wasn’t a malicious false call as it can tie up valuable assets while we investigate the local area to fully ensure we haven’t missed anything.”
“We want everyone who is in difficulty to be able to dial 999 and ask for the Coastguards as we are here to help those in need, but if you do recover or get yourself to a place of safety please let the ops room know so we can be sure that everyone is safe.”
“Thanks to the RNLI Lifeguards for their help, covering a large amount of beach on their quad bike was a huge help, and could potentially have saved a lot of time especially if there had been someone in need of medical attention, and to the Beach Warden for his efforts too.”
