12:12am Saturday 4th July 2009
By Andrew White
LIFEBOAT volunteers were called into to assist with a coastal search operation for a missing man.
A shore based search operation was started just after 8pm this evening by Police and Coastguard Rescue Teams after a member of the public contacted Durham Police concerned about the welfare of a 59-year-old man who appeared distressed on the cliff tops near Featherbed Rocks, Sunderland.
Two RNLI lifeboats from Sunderland, along with a helicopter from the police’s North East Air Support Unit were also scrambled to assist the shore-based teams search the two mile stretch of coastline between Featherbed and Salterfern Rocks.
Duncan Gomes, helmsman at Sunderland RNLI said: “Our initial concern was that this person may have fallen to the base of the cliffs which are very inaccessible from shore-side.
"We were asked to carry out a coastal search along the base of the cliffs between Featherbed and Salterfern Rocks.”
After about 30 minutes emergency teams managed to located the man on a small cliff above Seaham promenade. After a short while the man was assisted down from the cliff by police and coastguard teams.
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