THE hot weather has led to a busy weekend so far for the region’s coastguards, who were called out to deal with numerous incidents on Saturday.

It started at 3am, when Thames Coastguard received a report of a missing person who had taken a small dinghy out on the river Alde, following a party at Aldeburgh Yacht Club.

The town’s inshore lifeboat, Aldeburgh Coastguard, and a rescue helicopter searched for the missing person, who was eventually found ashore in Aldeburgh High Street by a lifeboat crewman.

Then just before midday, Felixstowe Coastguard helped a man who had collapsed on a beach in the town. A paramedic attended and treated the man at the scene.

Meanwhile, Clacton Coastguard and beach patrol team were called to investigate after numerous 999 calls from members of the public reporting jet skis off the coast between Point Clear and Jaywick, which were behaving in a dangerous manner close to swimming areas.

The jet skiers were located at Point Clear and were given safety advice.

At around 2.30pm, Thames Coastguard received a report of a power boat carrying eight people, which had a fire in its engine room. The blaze was extinguished before the lifeboat arrived on scene. The crew were safe and had been taken aboard by a nearby vessel. The lifeboat towed the craft to a mooring off West Mersea.

An hour later, Suffolk Police involved coastguards in a search for a missing three-year-old in the vicinity of the Leisure Centre at Felixstowe. The child was found safe and well by police.