SAFETY measures to help look after the 120,000-strong crowd that flocked to a popular summer air show have been deemed a big success.

Elliot Furniss

SAFETY measures to help look after the 120,000-strong crowd that flocked to a popular summer air show have been deemed a big success.

The Clacton Air Show took place last Thursday and Friday and organisers have praised the efforts of staff and volunteers.

Some 3,900 special wristbands were handed out to youngsters by Tendring District Council and enabled several lost children get reunited with their parents during the busy event.

Sections of the seafront had a different colour band which helped to identify where their parents or carers could be located should the youngsters get lost.

Over the two days six children managed to get separated from their group and each was successfully reunited in a short space of time.

Pierre Oxley, the council's portfolio holder for leisure, said the wristband initiative had operated for some years and continued to be very successful.

“It can be very distressing for both parents and children should they become separated - especially when there are such large crowds about as there were on Thursday and Friday,” he said.

“With children being supplied with coloured wristbands it makes it much easier to get them back with their parents in a short space of time and helped ensure that they could all carry on enjoying their day together.”

The council's Beach Patrol Team also dealt with a number of minor injuries over the two days - as well as three casualties who needed hospital treatment.

Working alongside St John Ambulance they took care of a man in his 70s who was diabetic and collapsed, a woman in her 50s who collapsed and needed treatment and a man in his 30s who fell and injured his head. All three ended up being taken to hospital by ambulance.