A search and rescue operation for a missing person is continuing today in the seaside town of Withernsea, Yorkshire while weather alerts remain in place.
GB News’ National Reporter Jack Carson is reporting on the ground after the Coast Guard and emergency services were called out to concerns of safety of people in the water shortly after 3.10pm on Friday.
Despite efforts from emergency teams, a man, 67, was recovered from the water just before 10pm and died shortly after, Humberside Police said.
Later that evening, the force confirmed another had died and searches remained underway for a third who is believed to have entered the water.
But eyewitnesses have also reported a teenage girl was knocked over by a mammoth wave before the ferocious sea swept her further from shore.
HM Coastguard, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Humberside Police, and Humberside Fire and Rescue all deployed crews to Withernsea at around 3.15pm to retrieve the trio.
Rescue teams, involving more than 100 members of emergency services, paused efforts at 12.30am and resumed at 6.30am “at first possible light”.
Jack reported: “Yesterday evening, police officers were seen shining their torches onto the beach to try and aid the search and rescue operations.
Jack Carson reports from Withernsea
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GB NEWS
“A local inshore lifeboat at Hornsea couldn’t be deployed because of how treacherous the water was.
“Here in Withernsea, the RNLI lifeboat had to be brought into the water a different way.
“It couldn’t be deployed directly into the sea, such was the ferocity of the waves here.
“Eyewitnesses told GB News that she saw those people in the lifeboat as part of that search and rescue team holding on to each other, holding onto the rocks because the water breaking over them was so high, three or four metres high, she told us.
The rescue efforts are continuing today
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GB NEWS
“Now today we’ve seen here at the scene police are still on site, fire and rescue, but also coastguard searching around rocks just off the shoreline.”
Yesterday afternoon, the sea was at high tide, bringing “a whole new set of circusmtances for the search and rescue teams to try and manage” as they pursued the rescue efforts.
Jack further revealed the searches are “very much focused on the ground” reporting on the lack of a search and rescue helicopter.
This morning, the Coastguard said: “HM Coastguard searches in the Withernsea area have resumed this morning, January 3.
“Coastguard Rescue Teams from Hull, Withernsea, Hornsea and Bridlington alongside police were sent to the scene at around 6.30am to search for one missing person.
“Searches remain ongoing.”
On New Year’s Day, swimmers were barred from entering the dangerous waters on account of the sheer size of the waves.
Additionally, a yellow weather warning has been issued for snow and ice along the east coast across Yorkshire.