Team contacted by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service regards possible search assistance

This evening a major search of the River Ribble was carried out after reports that a man had got into difficulty in the water.

Emergency services were called to a stretch of the river off a walk way close to Maritime Way near Preston Docks at 19.20hrs this evening.

The Maritime Coastguard Agency and RNLI were called alongside Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, Lancashire Constabulary resources and NWAS (Lancashire).

At 20.27hrs this evening our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was directly contacted by an LFRS Officer, who had also spoken to the Team Leader Phil O’Brien MBE of Bowland Pennine MRT, regarding both teams possibly lending specialist resources to a continuation of the search, should this be required tomorrow morning.

Our Team Leader then made direct contact with specific members of our ‘water team,’ (Initially by pager alert at 20.36hrs) followed by a pager call at 20.55hrs requesting our ‘water team’ members declare their availability should they be required tomorrow morning to assist in any continuation of this search.

At circa 21.00hrs we understand emergency services were stood down with the North West (Police) Underwater and Marine Unit expected to attend in the morning.

This request to the team for our possible assistance is reported here for the information and interest of our readers and does not feature in our Incident listings.