An unmanned and adrift yacht eight miles north – north west of Alderney sparked a major search.

The
volunteer crew onboard the Alderney RNLI Trent class lifeboat Roy
Barker I set off at 10am on Friday to assist in
the search for a missing person.

The French
yacht was boarded by two crew members of the Alderney lifeboat, who
searched the vessel and confirmed the yacht to be unmanned.

The vessel
was then sailed to Braye Harbour in Alderney.

A full search of the area was carried out by the Alderney lifeboat, a
French Lifeboat, Channel Island Air Search and a French air craft. The
Roy Barker I continued to search the area until they were
stood down at 5.33pm by CROSSMA, the French Coastguard station who
co-ordinated the incident.

The whereabouts of the person is still
unknown.

A spokesperson for the Alderney Harbour Office said:‘Guernsey police have now released the vessel to the French authorises for investigation.’