Wooden plank sparks sea rescue
A major sea rescue was launched after a member of the public reported seeing someone in the water off Seaham which turned out to be a large piece of wood.
Helicopters from RAF Boulmer, Northumbria Police and the North East Air Ambulance joined Sunderland's RNLI Lifeboat in the search after someone was reported to be in difficulty 300m off the North Pier.
Waves as high as 2m in the area made the search more difficult, then crews spotted a 4ft piece of wood floating vertically.
More searches were carried out to make sure no-one was in danger, and the operation was stood down 90 minutes after the alarm was raised
Paul Nicholson, Senior Helmsman at Sunderland RNLI, said: "After carrying out a full search of the area, we were all happy that no one remained in the sea in difficulty.
"It would appear that this turned out to be a false call with good intent, as the floating piece of wood could have looked like a person from the shoreline."