The public has been told that they should call the coastguard if they think there is an emergency despite the service being called out to a false alarm recently.

Both Furness Coastguard and Cumbria Police responded to what turned out to be a false alarm just off the coast at Walney on Monday night.

As the teams mobilised to scene, the news came in that the person was not in difficulty and was in fact swimming.

A Furness Coastguard spokesperson said: “The person who called it in did absolutely the right thing at the right time.

“They believed a person was in difficulty in the water and reported it straight away, we would rather get called out to an incident that turns out to be a false alarm with good intent than be called out too late or not at all.”

Furness Coastguard were paged for the third time in three days to reports of a person in the water at Earnse Bay

Police said they were contacted at 4.59pm on October 5 to a report of a concern for welfare on West Shore Beach, Walney.

A 40-year-old man from Barrow was located in the water and he was able to leave the water on his own accord.

The location was off the coast of West Shore, Walney and the first informant believed the person was in difficulty being dragged out to sea.

The other recent incidents involved vessels being left stranded, Furness Coastguard were paged at 9.18am to reports of a vessel sinking in Walney Channel on Sunday

Once on scene the team found the vessel had already sunk and was about to be covered fully by the tide.

On Saturday, Furness Coastguard were paged at 3.53pm to reports of a vessel in difficulty off the shoreline of Windermere, near Wray Castle.

Before the team arrived on scene the positive news was received that the person in danger was safely ashore having self-righted their boat.

If in any danger around the coast, dial #999 and ask for the Coastguard.