Wylam Bridge

Incident Type: Search

On Sunday, ourselves and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team received a request from Northumbria Police to assist with the search of a missing man in the Wylam area.

Both team were called out later on Sunday morning and areas around Wylam bridge were searched by mountain rescue volunteers both in the water and on the bank sides as well as using drone units.

On Monday, water teams, foot teams as well as drone units were again deployed to search south of Wylam bridge. Again, with nothing found, the teams stood down later on Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday,the teams widened their search area to search along the river banks downstream and with searching now taking place in the tidal part of the river, colleagues from Maritime and Coastguard Agency and
tynemouthvlb also joined the search. The Northumbria Police marine diving unit searched the area immediately downstream of the bridge.

Tragically, later on Tuesday afternoon, Police Divers located Liam’s body downstream of the bridge.

Our thoughts and condolences are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

Over the three days, the incident involved 38 team members on Sunday for 5 hours and 14 minutes, 14 team members on Monday for 8 hours 11 minutes and 23 team members on Tuesday for 9 hours 33 minutes.