MISSING BOY, 11, FOUND ON BEACH


A call earlier today from Devon and Cornwall Police alerted Portland Coastguard to a missing 11 year old child who had last been seen yesterday around the Branscombe cliff area yesterday evening around 5.00 pm.

He had been playing with three friends aged 10 to 16 and he had suffered some sort of minor sprain to his ankle and had been lagging behind whilst they pushed on ahead rockpooling from Seaton to Sidmouth along the beach path after an earlier journey from Honiton.
The weather is quite rough today with southerly winds of force 7 and visibility about 3 nautical miles with a lot of white water inshore.

The Beer Coastguard Rescue Team were immediately turned out and began a search from Ham where youngsters are often seen to play. A search around the main beach, the river Sid and Ham Green revealed nothing.

The Coastguard Rescue Helicopter from Portland was immediately scrambled and began a search from Branscombe. Concern was heightened as the cliffs in the area are prone to crumble and in recent wet weather rocks and cliff faces have also become slippery.

At just after midday the helicopter crew located the boy, hobbling and with no shoes on near the base of the cliff. The helicopter immediately landed nearby and picked him up.

Maddy Davey, Watch Manager at Portland Coastguard said

“We are absolutely thrilled he has now been found and will shortly be reunited with his parents. We were extremely concerned for his safety given he has been out all night in cold temperatures and in view of the tidal conditions.

“The boy had been reported missing from his home in Honiton on the evening of 12th. On contacting friends of the missing boy, they reported that he had last been seen at 1700 on the 12th Feb on the beach whilst on a walk from Seaton to Sidmouth. The tide was rising at the time. During the search, Coastguard Helicopter `Rescue 106` called to report that they had located the boy on the cliff at Dunscombe. The helicopter winched the boy into the aircraft and landed him at Sidmouth to be met by Beer Coastguards, Police and an Ambulance. The boy, who had been found wearing no shoes appeared to be remarkably unharmed by his ordeal.”

Popular posts from this blog

Label your kit at the coast

Image
Kayaks. Canoes. Paddleboards. What do they all have in common? They’re quite often found on the coastline or drifting out to sea. And if we don’t know who they belong to, we can spend time searching for an owner when they’re home safe and sound. So please help us to help you. Label your kit so that if you do get separated from it, and it turns up somewhere, we can get hold of you. In recent weeks, our Coastguard Rescue Teams have found numerous items such as kayaks and canoes drifting out at sea or abandoned near the shoreline. Unfortunately, some of the items we have found have not had their owners’ contact details written on them nor been reported as missing to the Coastguard. As a result, it makes it difficult for us to find out who it belongs to and also means we can never be completely sure if someone is safe or in the worst case, in trouble at sea. This can place a huge strain on our resources especially during the busy summer period when we have to call upon our Coastgua
Read more

A short history of HM Coastguard

Image
Today HM Coastguard is a world leader in maritime search and rescue. Looking back almost 200 years, the goods, which now travel by road, were carried by hundreds of small ships. Year in year out dozens of ships and hundreds of lives were lost within sight of the coast. Public shock and dismay at the tragedies drove forward the creation of national life saving organisations. Though it’s beginnings lie in those decades HM Coastguard originated not to meet the dangers of the seas but to combat a threat to the country’s economy and security – smuggling. As soon as medieval taxes were charged on imports and exports, people began smuggling. By 1743 th e estimate was that half the tea drunk in Britain was illegally imported and shows that smuggling was highly profitable. Smugglers have often been romanticised but the reality was brutal. Local people lived in fear, with violent reprisals on informers and the murder of revenue officers, while corruption enabled smugglers to evade harsh p
Read more

BOSCASTLE FLOODS: TEN YEARS ON

Image
Boscastle Flooding 16 th August 2004 The storms of Monday 16 August 2004 saw three weeks worth of rain fall in one day. The resulting water began to be funnelled down the valleys surrounding Boscastle and soon the steep roads became rivers. By the time that the water reached the picturesque village, it had picked up enough momentum to become a raging torrent, sweeping into buildings, washing cars away and felling huge trees. Graham King runs the Witches Museum in Boscastle and was also the station officer for the Boscastle Coastguard Rescue Team at the time of the floods: “ My museum is situated next to the harbour near the river ,” says Graham “ and I can see the coastguard equipment store from there. Initially I was concerned that the vehicle and equipment were going to become stranded but I soon began to realise how quickly the situation was deteriorating and called Falmouth Coastguard ” From that point on the villagers and tourists stranded in flood waters were he
Read more