COASTGUARDS are warning against hoax calls after crews were involved in a five-hour rescue, which turned out to be a false alarm.

Last Friday, May 11, at 8.12pm the Coastguard received a DSC Distress Alert, indicating that a vessel was in grave and imminent danger on the Severn Estuary.

The Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) launched two lifeboats from Sharpness and Beachley Lifeboat Stations and crews spent almost five hours conducting a detailed search of the area between Avonmouth and Sharpness.

The search continued until 1am on Saturday morning, May 12, but was ended after nothing was found.

A further DSC Distress Alert from the same equipment as the previous night was picked up later on Saturday morning while the SARA Lifeboats were dealing with another emergency.

HM Coastguard was able to make enquiries which revealed that the equipment sending out the alerts was registered to a vessel in Hamble, Southhampton.

Further enquiries by the Coastguard revealed that the vessel had been sold and was in fact at a private address in Swindon. It is believed that children boarded the vessel and were playing with the distress equipment fitted to the vessel.

Geoff Dawe, operations manager at the SARA Sharpness Lifeboat Station, said the initial false alarm involved four lifeboats and 26 crew members.

He said: "It was a difficult operation with lifeboats having to carry out a detailed search of a huge area with many dangers present in the darkness around rocks and sand banks, initially at a low state of tide.

"I would urge any boat owners to ensure when their craft are not in use to remove batteries to ensure that this type of incident does not occur.

"The cost to SARA of the operation was huge, in the current climate where funding is so difficult, lifeboats have to launch to every possibility of persons in danger, however such false alerts implicate greatly on the funding."