Emergency services search for man who fell from Tyne Bridge

Jan 8 2012 by Michael Brown, Sunday Sun

EMERGENCY services have been searching the River Tyne after a third person fell from a landmark bridge in a week.

The end of a week of tragedy at the famous Tyne Bridge saw police call in the coastguard to help scour the river, after reports a man had been spotted falling into the water at about 11.10pm on Friday.

However, an extensive search involving the police helicopter, fire and rescue launch and Tynemouth lifeboat failed to find a body.

The incident is the third since New Year’s Eve when a man, believed to possibly be an international university student, plunged from the bridge.

A 33-year-old woman was pronounced dead in hospital after being pulled from the river on Thursday.

A spokesman for Tynemouth RNLI lifeboat station, Adrian Don, said their volunteer, three-man crew made the eight-mile journey upriver, arriving at the scene just after midnight and beginning to search west towards the Scotswood Bridge, as the tide was coming in.

“It’s quite unusual for us to be called out as the fire and rescue service has its own boat,” he said.

“But our volunteer lifeboat crew used their experience and extensive training to establish their search around the most likely places the casualty could have drifted, taking into account the currents and weather conditions.

“Searching for a person in the water in the dark is difficult, but our volunteer crew used night vision equipment to assist them.

“Having exhausted any possibility of locating the casualty the search was reluctantly called off.”