Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘Inflatable toys are unsuitable for the sea’: Beachgoers in Tayside and Fife warned to take care after lifeboat callouts

Broughty Ferry's RNLI lifeboats have been called to the scene.
Broughty Ferry's RNLI lifeboats have been called to the scene.

Beachgoers in Tayside and Fife have been warned to take care after lifeboats from Broughty Ferry and Kinghorn received six callouts in one day.

The Fife crew was called out at 3.15am on Wednesday after concerns for a person near Portobello.

The person was recovered safely and taken to hospital.

Five hours later the crew was alerted about an unknown object floating in the water near Kirkcaldy – which turned out to be a discarded Christmas tree.

‘Extensive search’ after inflatable toys found

The third call came when residents spotted what appeared to be an inflatable object being blown out to sea.

The Kinghorn crew recovered five deflated toys that had been pulled out by the tide.

A search was launched alongside the coastguard but nobody was found in the water.

Helmsman Neil Chalmers said: “It was a fairly extensive search but we soon found that the people involved had gone to shore.

The recovered inflatables at Kinghorn.

“These inflatable toys are completely unsuitable for the sea, I wouldn’t recommend them on open water.

“If you do have one of these inflatables that gets blown away, please do give us a call and just let us know.

“You’ll never get in trouble for contacting us.”

It was also a busy day for Broughty Ferry’s RNLI crew, which was called out to three incidents in the course of 24 hours.

The first shout came after a boat became unmoored on the River Tay near Perth at 9.36am on Wednesday.

The vessel had begun to drift down the river unaccompanied and the Ferry crew helped secure the vessel and tow it back to Perth.

A crew mmber from Broughty Ferry RNLI on the runaway boat near Perth.

Just before 6.30pm the crew was called out to another inflatable toy that was empty.

A spokesman for the station said: “We would like to remind members of the public using Broughty Ferry beach that it is currently manned by RNLI lifeguards and the flags on the beach also display an orange windsock, which indicates offshore or strong wind conditions.

“Never use inflatables when the windsock is flying and please do not discard these on the beach.”

The final call of the day came from Invergowrie bay after reports that windsurfers were struggling in the water.

‘They were all OK’

The spokesman added: “The inshore lifeboat made way at best speed towards Invergowrie as the all-weather lifeboat headed along the south shore towards the same area.

“As the ALB was making way, they spotted two white sails towards the south shore in the area of Balmerino and headed towards them.

“It was then confirmed by the first informant that these were indeed the sails that they had spotted and reported.

“Once alongside the ALB confirmed these were two small sailing boats and that they were all OK and not in need of any assistance.”