A huge rescue operation was launched following reports of someone entering the River Tay in Perth on Sunday.
A body was spotted in the water by an off-duty firefighter shortly before 5pm, near Smeaton’s Bridge.
Their alert brought specialist teams from across Tayside rushing to the city.
Part of Perth city centre was cordoned off for hours as emergency services worked in darkness to scour the river for the suspected casualty.
Nine appliances from Perth, Dunkeld, Coupar Angus and Dundee rushed to the scene on Tay Street, where a command centre was set up.
The search focused on the Moncreiffe Island area, where what was believed to be the body was last spotted in the water.
Firefighters, including the rope and river rescue teams, were joined by search and rescue teams from the coastguard and specialist medical services.
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Police Scotland deployed a helicopter from Glasgow to assist with the operation.
An eyewitness told The Courier: “I saw the helicopter hovering above the Friarton Bridge at around 6.30pm with its searchlights shining down into the river.
“There were also a lot of appliances heading from Dundee with their blue lights flashing and sirens on, so it was clear something serious was going on.”
Teams painstakingly picked their way along both sides of the river in a desperate bid to find signs of life.
RIB craft from the Coastguard and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service also carried out a search on the water.
A spokesman for the Coastguard said: “We are assisting the police in a missing person search.Both lifeboats were launched at around 5.30pm.”
Unfortunately, due to the length of time the suspected casualty was believed to have been in the river which was running high and fast following heavy rain their efforts became a recovery rather than rescue operation.
The incident commander and group manager at Perth, Rab Middlemiss, told The Courier: “What we have here is a large scale multi-agency emergency response to a very challenging situation.
“We have specialist rescue teams here from Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service, the Coastguard and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service working together to resolve this incident.”
The search was stood down around 9.30pm and was due to resume on Monday morning.
Photos by Stuart Cowper Photography