Wigan firefighters launch freezing river search amid reports that young man had fallen in

Happily the man in question was later found safe and well but only after Wigan firefighters had probed the Douglas in both directions from the Pool Street bridge near the Honeysuckle pub in Poolstock and then searched areas around the A49 link road after further information came through.

It was the man’s father who rang the police to say he was fearing for his son’s life at around 10.15pm on Sunday December 12.

With temperatures plummeting below zero, the emergency services were taking no chances and so the crew from Wigan fire station was scrambled.

They didn’t enter the water themselves and watch manager Gareth Gray said that the search – as it turned out, unsuprisingly - drew a blank.

It was while they were at the link road that a passing paramedic told them that the young man had been found, that he had been with friends all the time and was now safely back home at the Coops building on Dorning Street.

Mr Gray said: “We were just pleased that there was a happy ending here.

"The 999 call was made in good faith by a dad worried about his son, and with the weather being so cold there was no time to lose in conducting a search.”