Helicopter rescues missing person from Essex marshland

A missing person was rescued by helicopter from an area of inaccessible marshland on the north east Essex coast.

Emergency services carried out an early morning search of the coastline around Harwich and Dovercourt following reports of a missing person.

Officers from Holbrook and Walton Coastguard rescue teams helped Essex Police on the land while the Harwich RNLI conducted a water search.

The Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 163 was called in to search inaccessible areas of marshland by air.

“The missing person was located safe and well by Rescue 163 and airlifted to a safe area,” a Coastguard spokesman said.

The Coastguard teams said they used a range of techniques in search operations including, missing people profiling and historical data.

They also use the “bike wheel search model” – a method of segmenting search areas on a map involving a “hub”, “wheel” and “spokes”.