Police were called after six distress flares were falsely sent out over Aberdeen Harbour forcing rescue teams out at night.
The city’s RNLI lifeboats were dispatched to sea at 9.35pm last night after the UK Coastguard confirmed sightings of distress signals.
The six flares were fired over the Aberdeen Harbour channel, Girdleness Head and Aberdeen South Harbour area.
Two lifeboat crews trolled the waters and coastguards also joined the search however nothing was found.
Aberdeen Lifeboat 2nd coxswain Michael Cowlam says: “Conditions for the search were good, albeit the light was fading. No further distress signals were seen or received however, and, with nothing found, the lifeboats returned to base by 11pm.”
UK Coastguard have now reported the incident to Police Scotland as a suspected case of distress flares being fired with malicious intent.
Bill Deans MBE, lifeboat operations manager at Aberdeen Lifeboat Station, says: “This irresponsible act forced nine RNLI volunteers to abandon social distancing to crew the lifeboats. It tied up valuable search and rescue (SAR) resources at sea and ashore.
"This malicious false alarm also wasted thousands of pounds of charitable donations by Aberdonians to fund their lifeboats – at a time when Covid-19 has had a significant detrimental impact on RNLI fundraising locally and nationally.”
These photos, by deputy mechanic Mark Gray, show the lifeboats returning to base as the last glow of sunset silhouettes the City.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Police received report of flares being set off on Girdleness Road, Aberdeen around 9.20pm on Friday, 17 July, 2020. Officers attended, however, no-one was traced upon arrival. Enquiries are ongoing."
