| Police received a call from a concerned woman after she spotted a man sitting on the wall at Riverside Drive, close to the Barnett Motor Group car showroom complex, just after 6.30am. When she looked back less than a minute later, he had vanished.
The coastguard launched two boats from the lifeboat stations at Broughty Ferry and Arbroath to aid the search, followed by Dundee Airport’s rescue hovercraft, the Tay Bridge safety boat and a light aircraft.
The search lasted for over three hours before being called off just before 10am after proving fruitless.
A police spokeswoman said, “A member of the public reported the sighting to the police early this morning.
“The woman saw a man sitting on the wall on Riverside Drive close to the Rail Bridge and then, when she looked back around a minute later, the person was no longer there.
“Nobody has been reported missing to us and we have no other information that would give us any idea whether this person might have gone into the water.”
The spokeswoman said the delay would have lasted just under a minute, potentially giving the man enough time to walk away from the scene.
Further inquiries are now under way and police are keen to establish the identity of the man to ensure he is safe and well. They are also appealing for any witnesses who were in the area at the time to come forward.
Dave Martin from Broughty Ferry RNLI said, “There was a major search of the Tay from about 7am today. Both of our boats were launched after a possible report of someone falling into the water.
“Around 20 minutes later, the Tay Bridge safety boat and Dundee airport’s hover craft were asked by the coastguard to join in the search.
“By 8am, two boats from Broughty Ferry RNLI were launched to search the waters in their area. A light aircraft then joined the search just after 9am.”
The coastguard at Fifeness stood all of the boats down just before 10am after the extensive search revealed nothing.
Mr Martin went on, “This was an exhaustive search with vast resources deployed.
“Visibility was good and we were out for over three hours.”
He added there was only so long a search could be carried out before the tide made it impossible to continue.
The water was around 10C at this time of year so it was possible someone could survive for some time at that temperature.
Dundee Airport manager Derrick Lang said, “The hovercraft is for the use of the airport but it can be made available for searches.” |
