Wanted man is rescued by coastguard

Published on 21/01/2013 02:20

A MAN wanted by police was found clinging to a buoy in ice-cold water below a major bridge, the coastguard has said.

Plymouth RNLI Inshore ­Lifeboat and the Ministry of Defence’s police boat ­Excalibur were deployed to the River Tamar at around 3:25pm yesterday afternoon.

Brixham Coastguard, which handled the call for the incident, said it was unclear how the man ended up in the water, but confirmed he was found cold and wet.

A spokesman added: “We received a report of a male hanging onto a buoy below the Tamar Bridge.

“Excalibur recovered the casualty before he was checked out by paramedics. It is unclear how he ended up on the buoy, but we were told that he was wanted by police.”

The Tamar Bridge, which opened in 1961 and is on the A38, carries traffic between Cornwall and Devon.