Police Searching For Man In The Sea In Sunderland Find Body

23 September 2014, 16:28 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Police have now named a man who died after going into the sea in Sunderland - trying to save his dog.

A man who died after he went into the sea to rescue a dog in Sunderland has now been named.

The body of 32 year old Alex Hardy from Stockton was discovered on a beach this morning.

He was found 30 miles away from where he was last spotted in Grangetown.

Updated 11.30am Tuesday 23rd September 2014

The man, in his 30s, was seen getting into difficulties in the water yesterday afternoon after going in with a woman to rescue a dog

The body was found on a beach around 30 miles away, near Ocean Road in Grangetown this morning.

The woman was pulled from the water and was treated in hospital for hypothermia.

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Updated 6am, Tuesday 23rd September 2014

The man has been missing off the coast of Hendon beach in Sunderland since around 4pm yesterday.

A woman who also went into the water was rescued by an RNLI crew shortly after the first emergency call was received and taken to hospital by ambulance.

The dog was said to have made its own way back to the beach.

Two teams from Humber Coastguard, two crews from Sunderland RNLI and a police helicopter were involved in the search, which was called off at around 10.45pm.

A spokeswoman for Humber Coastguard said last night:
"The crews have done all they can in the dark but we have suspended the search until the morning.

We will start again around 9.30am at low tide when it is safest to search.

Eyewitnesses who called 999 said they believed the two people went into the water after their dog who had got into trouble in the water.

The lifeboat crew had just finished another incident to the north of Hendon when the call came in so they couldn't have got there any quicker.''

James Jamieson, operations manager at Sunderland RNLI, said his crew rescued the woman shortly after beginning their search for the pair but were stood down by the coastguard around 8.15pm when it became dark.

He said:
"Our thoughts are very much with the casualties and their friends and family."