Huge police search for missing boy, 13, who vanished at sea in Hornsea

A search and rescue operation is under way to find a teenage boy who got into difficulty in the sea off the East Yorkshire coast, police have said.

Humberside Police are working to locate a 13-year-old boy who was swimming in the sea off the South Promenade in Hornsea on Tuesday evening.

Police received reports of a concern for the boy’s safety at around 6pm and have since launched an ‘extensive search and rescue operation’.

Chief Superintendent Phil Booker said: ‘After receiving the report, officers were immediately deployed alongside other emergency services and upon attending, it was discovered that a 13-year-old boy had reportedly got into difficulty whilst swimming in the water.

‘Our priority now is to find the boy, and members of the public can expect to see specialist Police Search Advisors (POLSA), along with our Marine Unit and drone pilots, who have also been deployed to conduct an extensive search and rescue operation to locate him.’

‘We would urge people to please avoid the area where possible to allow emergency services to work efficiently and safely, and refrain from speculating on the circumstances of the incident,’ he added.

‘Our inquiries continue to ascertain the full circumstances around the report, and we would ask anyone with any information that may assist us, to please speak to the officers in Hornsea.’

Footage and photographs taken at the scene show a lifeboat on the sea, and an HM Coastguard helicopter circling above.

It comes after a 14-year-old boy drowned after going into the water in east London on Monday.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at about 6.48pm to reports that a boy had entered the Millwall Outer Dock near East Ferry Road on the Isle of Dogs.

The force said despite the efforts of emergency services, the boy was retrieved from the river at 10.30pm and pronounced dead.

Tuesday’s incident in East Yorkshire occurred less than 20 miles away from where 15-year-old Grace Keeling was swept out to sea in January.

Grace died in the sea at Withernsea, along with her mother, Sarah Keeling, 45, and local man Mark Ratcliffe, 67, who went into the water to help her on the afternoon of January 2 and immediately got into difficulties themselves, an inquest heard in May.

The search for Grace’s body took 13 days, and it was eventually found trapped among giant boulders used for sea defences to the south of where the incident happened.

According to Press Association estimates, at least 39 deaths have been reported this summer from open-water incidents.

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