Lifeboats launched for Sanday search

A major sea and land search operation was launched in the early hours of Sunday morning as the emergency services responded to a report of a missing person in Sanday.

Kirkwall Lifeboat, along with two police officers on board, left Kirkwall at 4am, heading for Loth Pier, Sanday, where the police were landed.

The lifeboat was then tasked to search the coastline on the north side of the island in very poor weather conditions, with strong to gale force winds, very rough sea and hail and snow showers. There was also lightning, which prevented a rescue helicopter joining the search.

Stromness RNLI were paged at 5am, after the Coastguard requested the launch of the Stromness Lifeboat to take a team of Coastguard personnel to the island as part of the search.

But just as the Stromness Lifeboat had left its berth, the Coastguard radioed the crew to say it was no longer needed as the person had been found.

Kirkwall Lifeboat then returned to Loth pier and met with the police before returning to Kirkwall at 7am.