HM Coastguard Southend said it was called to three incidents on Saturday and a further nine on Sunday, with a total of seven hours spent yesterday attending incidents.
The coastguard said it was unable to go into detail about each individual incident, but thank the community for their “quick” reports and urged anyone who spots someone in distress to call 999 immediately, saying “seconds” can make a significant difference.
Dedication – The coastguard attended 12 incidents this weekend (Image: HM Coastguard Southend)
Southend’s seafront has seen a huge turnout over the Bank Holiday weekend amid soaring temperatures expected to hit 30 degrees today, according to a forecast by the Met Office, with the coastguard urging beach-goers to stay safe as they enjoy the beach.
A spokesperson for HM Coastguard Southend said: “We have been extremely busy attending water based incidents over the past two days, attending three incidents on Saturday and a further nine incidents on Sunday.
“We can not go into detail on every incident but yesterday the team had to deal with multi dynamic incidents with missing persons in the water of all ages and the rescuing of persons from the water who were struggling to keep afloat.
Distress – The coastguard urged anyone who sees someone in trouble to dial 999 (Image: Newsquest)
“Our community as always were quick to report incidents as they saw them and called 999 and asked for the Coastguard, seconds count when water incidents are involved and we wish those who needed any hospital treatment well for their recovery.
“As always such incidents involve multi partners and we would like to thank Essex Police, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust and RNLI Southend Lifeboat and our HM Coastguard Canvey Island & Dover MRCC colleagues for their assistance yesterday on what ended up being seven hours of incidents one after the other for the teams.”
The coastguard said anyone who finds themselves in distress in the water should lean back to stay afloat while gently moving their arms and legs, ensure they catch their breath and control their breathing, and raise a hand to signal for help.
