Denbighshire County Council’s Lifeguard team helped swiftly locate a missing 5 year old child on holiday from Greater Manchester on Sunday afternoon.
The lifeguards reacted quickly to reports that the 5 year old had wandered off from his family near to the beach at the Nova Centre in Prestatyn at around 3:28pm.
The Prestatyn lifeguard team passed the details to Holyhead Coastguard and commenced a search of the immediate area, whilst requesting back – up from the Rhyl Coastguard Team and the Rhyl Volunteer RNLI Lifeboat.
Senior Lifeguard Simon Casey said, “The Coastal Facilities Officer and I were making our way to the scene, to assist in the search, when we spotted a young boy matching the description by the slipway at Ffrith Beach. He was distressed and cold, and we quickly established this was the boy we were all looking for.
“We took steps to get him warmed up and checked out by the Ambulance Service whilst reuniting him with his family, who were all scouring the area to locate him. They were extremely relived and grateful that we had found him.
Ian Olson, Coastal Facilities Officer said, “Although the weather wasn’t sunbathing quality on Sunday, we sill had a number of people using the beaches. The family had said that he was there one second and gone the next, luckily they were very quick in alerting us to the fact that their child had gone missing, and we were able to find him within about ten minutes of the initial call.
“It is important that if your child does go missing and wander off on the coast, that you let a lifeguard know as soon as you can, or call the Coastguard and police”.
