Kyle RNLI lifeboat crews called out to two false alarms within four hours

Lifeboat crews were called out to two incidents involving divers within four hours on Wednesday, however both were deemed to be false alarms with good intent.

The UK Coastguard received an alert just before 11am of a number of divers in distress off Scalpay island, near the Skye coast.

The divers were believed to be signalling and calling for help, and the Kyle RNLI lifeboat was dispatched – however, upon arriving, they found that they were not in distress.

Instead, they had been shouting and signalling to each other. The lifeboat ensured nobody was injured and everyone was accounted for, before then returning to Kyle at 11.45am.

The pagers sounded again three hours later, at 2:46pm, after members of the public thought there may be a diver in difficulty in the Kylerhea Narrows after seeing something in the water.

The lifeboat arrived at the scene at around 3.10pm where they began a search, finding debris in the water which had been mistaken for a diver in trouble.

As the debris was a danger to shipping, the lifeboat crew recovered it before leaving the scene and returning to Kyle, arriving back at 3.45pm.

A spokesperson for Kyle RNLI said: “The two separate incidents were false alarms with good intent.

“In both cases the reporting parties did exactly the right thing in calling for help when they thought someone was in distress.”