A BLACKBURN man sparked a large rescue operation in Cumbria after falling into water on a night out.

The 21-year-old was visiting Barrow when he ended up in the Walney Channel, which runs into the Irish Sea.

He was rescued and given some ‘serious words of advice’ by officers after being taken to a nearby hospital suffering from suspected hypothermia.

Police say a frantic search operation was launched after witnesses said they believed a second person was also in the water, at around 1am.

A police helicopter buzzed overhead as flares lit up the dark night sky. The coastguard, ambulance and fire services were all involved in the search, which was called off at around 2.10am when it was confirmed nobody else was in the water.

Barrow RNLI also launched two boats — at a cost of around £7,000 to the charity, which relies on donations to carry out its work.

Spokesman John Falvey said: “Paramedics had seen the man floating away. He was being swept from the Walney Bridge towards the Duddon estuary.

“The tide was about to turn so once he got to the estuary, which is not a nice place to be, he would then have been taken out to the Irish Sea, and then it’s anybody’s guess.

“He was already suffering from hypothermia so the chances are he would have perished. We have had fatalities up that end before, although not recently.”

He continued: “The simple fact of the matter is had there been a bigger emergency at sea, we can only do one job at once.

“And the ambulance and fire brigade were there as well, so if somebody had a heart attack, or there was a fire, they would have already been committed.”

A spokeswoman for Cumbria Police said: “A 21-year-old intoxicated male from the Blackburn area had entered the water for whatever reason. Emergency services were called at 1.07am on Saturday and he was rescued at 1.25pm.

“He was not arrested but he was given advice in the form of some serious words by officers.”