Suspected casualty in Whitehaven turns out to be... an inflatable champagne bottle

A full scale emergency response to a suspected casualty in the water off the coast of Whitehaven was called off after the object seen floating in the water turned out to be an inflatable champagne bottle.

A number of 999 calls were made in the Salterbeck area on Saturday, with the coastguard, police, and ambulance services all scrambled.

The team hastily searched around the reported location and failed to see anything of concern.

Multiple people had also reported that they had seen someone carrying out CPR on the beach. In actual fact, it was the first informant pressing down and deflating the large inflatable.

Whitehaven Coastguard Rescue Team says all those who called in did the right thing and that 'on a future occasion, these actions may just save a life.'

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• cumbria
• coastguard
• whitehaven