11/08/2003

Fisherman dies in stormy seas

A man has died after a series of storms wreaked havoc on shipping lanes off the coast of north-east England yesterday.

Yesterday the Hartlepool lifeboat said that it passed through wreckage and fishing pots just off Hartlepool and found two people in the water. They were retrieved and taken ashore where they were met by paramedics who reported that one was dead on arrival and the other was suffering from hypothermia. The man was placed in intensive care and remains in a serious condition.

Conditions in the area were described as "adverse" by the Coastguard as 40-knot winds and electrical storms took hold. Yesterday morning Humber Coastguard said they handled 16 incidents, including three simultaneous maydays and an urgency call.

Mayday calls came from a dive boat that ran aground off Redcar with six people on board, a fishing vessel in danger of running aground off Saltburn and a yacht which started taking in water off Hartlepool harbour.

Steve Kinroy, Humber Coastguard Watch Manager, said: "Dozens of calls came in from people out on the water that had become disorientated as a result of the storm. We tasked Redcar and Hartlepool and Skinningrove Coastguard rescue teams to the scene and requested the launch of Hartlepool, Redcar, Teesmouth, Staithes lifeboats. A Rescue helicopter was scrambled from RAF Boulmer."

The helicopter subsequently airlifted two divers who were diving off the Northumberland coast to the hyperbaric unit for recompression at Aberdeen.

Coastguard say that the treacherous conditions have now passed.

(gmcg)

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