Search for missing children

The Selsey Coastguard was called to West Wittering beach twice on Friday afternoon to reports of missing children, a spokesman said.

The first call came at 2.05pm when the team was paged to reports of a missing five-year-old at the beach.

The team arrived to further reports that a member of the public had found a child matching the same description walking along the beach in East Wittering, the spokesman said.

Coastguard rescue officers met them and took the child back to West Wittering beach to reunite them with their parents.

The spokesman said: “Thank you to the family that found the child and brought them to us.”

Later, at 3.20pm, the team was called to reports of two 13-year-olds missing at the beach.

As search teams got to work, the two children were found safe and well and the team was stood down, the spokesman said.

The Coastguard spokesman said: “Thank you to the West Wittering lifeguards for their amazing support as always, and for starting the season early (instead of starting at the end of May) due to the predicted nice weather that has been forecast over Easter.”