Emergency beacon alert sparks four-hour search in Cornwall

An appeal has been launched to help find the owner of a distress signal after it was activated in Cornwall.

HM Coastguard said there was a four-hour search off Mounts Bay, St Ives and Falmouth after the unregistered beacon went out at around 1pm BST on Wednesday.

Eight lifeboats were involved in the search, the coast guard said.

It said “nothing untoward” was found and the search was called off at 01:00 BST.

Falmouth Coastguard said: “The beacon is unregistered so HM Coastguard teams do not have the contact details of the owner.

“It is not known if it was accidentally activated or if someone is in trouble and needs rescuing.

“Several emergency teams searched the Cornish coast throughout the afternoon and into the night. RNLI lifeboats from St Ives, Newquay, Penzance, Falmouth and the Lizard were dispatched as well as fixed wing aircraft.’

Jill Rylance, from Falmouth Coastguard, said they occasionally received “beacons on land sometimes” which people removed.

“We followed them to the waste disposal sites and they accidentally activated. It could be something like that,” Ms Rylance said.

She asked if anyone had dropped the beacon to make contact as it could be of great help.

She said the alarm should be “treated as distress” because people could be in “serious and imminent danger”.

Daniel Winter, Commander of Marine Operations, HM Coastguard, said: “We would still like anyone with information that could help us identify and locate the owner of the lighthouse to contact our Falmouth operations centre.”