Lantern may have sparked fruitless sea hunt off Norfolk
A Chinese lantern mistaken for a distress flare may have sparked a fruitless search of the North Sea off the coast of Norfolk on Saturday night.
Operations manager for Wells-next-the-Sea lifeboat, Chris Hardy, said the crew spent almost four hours on the search but nothing was found.
Mr Hardy said people needed to take care with Chinese lanterns which could be mistaken for distress flares.
Sheringham lifeboat was also called to search a wide expanse of sea.
In addition, workers building towers in the Sheringham Shoal windfarm helped.