Last updated at 17:05, Monday, 16 July 2012

A BARROW man was found dead after going missing in the middle of the night.

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The 38-year-old man, named locally as Paul Thomson, was found on the Snab Point sands, on Walney, on Saturday afternoon.

The body was found after a man was reported missing from Piel Island in the early hours of Saturday.

Police were contacted at around 11am and told Mr Thomson, who works at the McBride factory in Park Road, had gone missing from Piel Island at around 12.30am.

Mr Thomson was believed to have been camping on the island but is thought to have attempted to walk back in the direction of Barrow over the sands.

A rescue operation was then launched by emergency services and inshore rescue volunteers.

Walney coastguard and Ulverston Inshore Rescue searched the land around Piel Island, Foulney Island and Walney Island, and the coastguard sent their boat into the Piel and Walney channels.

The RNLI’s Barrow inshore lifeboat and Barrow offshore lifeboat, the Grace Dixon, were also sent into the channels to help.

At around 2.30pm the body of a man was sighted by one of the shore rescue teams on a sandbank approximately one mile west of the lifeboat station, on the western side of Walney Channel, at a location known as Snab Sands.

The RNLI volunteer inshore lifeboat crew recovered the body, and, accompanied by a police officer, transported the body to the Barrow Docks and a waiting private ambulance.

The search was then stood down and the lifeboat crew returned to station in Roa Island.

Coxswain of Barrow lifeboat, Shaun Charnley said his thoughts were with the man’s family.

He said: “On behalf of everyone at Barrow lifeboat station, I would like to send our condolences to the family and friends of the deceased man, it is an absolute tragedy when something like this happens.”

A spokesman for Walney Coastguard said: “This was an extensive operation across a wide area, which could not have been completed as effectively without the resources that were available, and the support given by each team to the others.

“The combination of coastguard and RNLI assets, supplemented by Ulverston Inshore Rescue’s quad bike and search team members, proved extremely effective, and was an example of inter-service working at its best.

“Sadly, the outcome was not what everyone would have wished for, but we have at least been able to give some closure to the casualty’s loved ones. The condolences of all of the search team members are sent to the family and friends of the casualty.”

Councillor John Murphy, who often leads walks from Snab Point to Piel, said conditions on the sands should not be too treacherous at this time of year but people should be aware of the tides.

He said: “The sands at this moment should be relatively easy to walk across, but obviously we don’t know the circumstances of what has happened.

“There shouldn’t be any danger as long as people are aware of the tides. I don’t know what has happened but this is a tragedy.”

First published at 16:11, Monday, 16 July 2012
Published by http://www.walneylocal.co.uk