Three volunteer lifeboat crews and a coastguard helicopter were mobilised after a report of six people in the sea off Minehead seafront late at night.

They were joined by police, ambulance and fire services after a member of the public made a 999 call at around 11.40pm last Friday, March 6.

Minehead’s two RNLI lifeboats were quickly launched and the Barry Dock lifeboat and a coastguard helicopter both joined the operation from South Wales.

But the rescue services were stood down after contact was made on the beach with the supposed casualties – a family on holiday at Butlin’s holiday centre.

Minehead RNLI spokesman Chris Rundle said the origin of the incident appeared to have been a family dispute.

“It appears one family member was actually wading knee-deep in the sea but the whole group was reported as being in difficulties by a third party,” he said.

“It was a very confused situation but clearly when there is a report of persons in the water no-one can afford to take any chances.

“This actually turned out to be a very expensive response to a false alarm, but the scale of the resources deployed was no more than was warranted by the situation as initially described.”