Police, fire, and the coast guard have all been called in as part of a massive rescue effort to locate individuals who vanished in the water close to Withernsea.Two people have died amid a major search and rescue operation for people who got into difficulty in the sea off the Yorkshire coast.
Officials were first alerted to reports of people in trouble near Withernsea at 3.10pm on Friday. A 67-year-old man was found unconscious in the water and later confirmed to have died.Late on Friday evening, Humberside Police said a second body was recovered from the sea and added that “circumstances are not believed to be suspicious.”
Searches are ongoing, and one person is still thought to be missing.
The force asked people to avoid the area to allow the emergency services to carry out their work.Hornsea Inshore Rescue, a local independent group of volunteers, earlier said the treacherous conditions had stopped it from launching.
“Called out, unable to launch the lifeboat due to horrendous conditions and 3 metre waves breaking on our slipway which would knock the tractor and trailer sideways off the ramp,” it said in a statement on social media this afternoon.
In a post yesterday, the group said it had called off a New Year’s Day public swim because “the sea conditions were just not suitable today for us to condone anyone entering the water”.
Yesterday in Brighton a 51-year-old man died after getting into difficulty in the water.
