A search and rescue operation was launched

A BODY has been found by search and rescue teams looking for a man in the sea off Weston seafront.

A major emergency services operation was launched this morning (Thurs) when a member of the public spotted an abandoned wheelchair on the pathway behind the Royal Pier Hotel.

RNLI, police and coastguard teams were all involved in the search, which was launched after the alarm was raised to the coastguard at about 7am this morning (Thursday).

A walker spotted an abandoned wheelchair near the sea wall off Birnbeck Road – at the same spot as a man in his 40s had been seen sitting in the chair late the previous night.

Clothes and a body were found by search teams at about 9.30am, within a couple of hundred metres of the spot where the wheelchair was found.

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