Crews Search Southend On Sea Pier After Two-Man Report

999 crews rushed to southend on sea’s Southend Pier at 10.25pm yesterday after reports that two men had jumped from it into the sea. Essex Police, the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust and RNLI Southend Lifeboat were tasked to the response.

Search teams later found no persons on the pier, in the surrounding water or on the mud flats, and all units were stood down. HM Coastguard Southend On Sea said the operation used officers on the pier, a police helicopter in the air and Southend Hovercraft underneath the structure.

Southend Pier response

Southend Coastguard officers were taken to the end of the 1.3 mile pier to search the end structure and the water around it with Essex Police. The helicopter looked for signs of anyone in the water from above, while the hovercraft checked areas beneath the pier that officers could not easily see.

HM Coastguard Southend On Sea said: "We would like to thank the Pier & Foreshore security officer and RNLI for assisting our officers on and around the Pier."

HM Coastguard Southend On Sea

The coastguard said it has seen an increase in people, mainly teenagers, jumping into the sea from piers in recent years. It said the local piers and jetties where it has seen the most cases of tombstoning are Barge Pier on Garrison, Gilson Pier on Marine Parade and Bell Wharf at Old Leigh.

Restricted access and warning signs are in place at some of those sites, but the coastguard said the signs are continually vandalised. It also said the local jetties have hidden dangers and tidal flows that make jumping into the water very dangerous.

For people on Southend seafront, the immediate answer from the search was that nobody was recovered from the pier incident, and the response ended with every team stood down after a joint search across land, water and air.