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Major emergency at Youghal strand – 39 year old man arrested
5 comments | 
A 39 year old man living in Youghal is being questioned at Youghal Garda Station in connection with the major alarm involving all the emergency services at Claycastle strand last night (Thursday 19th August 2010). Report/Photo: www.YoughalOnline.com
Irish Coast Guard Helicopter searching the Claycastle beach area in Youghal with onlookers gazing at the unfolding drama - Pic www.YoughalOnline.com
The man is being held under Section 12 of the Criminal Law Act 1976. Reports that shots were heard in the area and of a person alleging he had self-inflicted gunshot wounds let to the high drama at Youghal beach last night (Thursday August 19th). Gardaí received a 999 call at approximately 7pm alleging a man had serious, self-inflictred injuries. ”The man gave details of an exact location but a search failed to locate anything. We resumed the search this morning but no-one has been recovered” a Garda spokesman said. It is now believed that the claims were false.
Emergency drama at Youghal's front strand - Pic www.YoughalOnline.com
It is understood the caller claimed that a shot had been fired in the Redbarn area at approximately 7pm. Gardaí, local fire units under the command of Station Officer Tommy Roche and the Youghal Coast Guard branch were immediately alerted and raced to the scene. The Coastguard helicopter was scrambled from Waterford to assist with the search, in adverse weather conditions and rapidly failing light.
The helicopter did a full sweep from Redbarn strand back towards town and hovered just metres above the Claycastle strand area shining it’s bright lights at a particular spot where the sluice gate is situated on the beach. It was thought that the helicopter was honing in on the GPS coordinates of the mobile phone used in the 999 call. The search was called off at 10pm and resumed at 9am this morning.
Janette Hickey and Tom Power from the Irish Coast Guard, Youghal branch, on full alert during the drama at Claycastle strand carpark - Pic www.YoughalOnline.com
Last night’s drama brought excitement amongst tourists and locals for over three hours. At one stage the carpark at Claycastle was cordoned off by Gardaí and access to the area was prohibited to clear the area for the helicopter to land. It is believed that whoever made the false alarm was watching the events as they occured. The entire emergency operation is understood to have cost thousands of pounds.
Irish Coast Guard helicopter hovering over Claycastle beach - Pic www.YoughalOnline.com
Youghal Garda station – Tel: 024 92200
Garda Confidential: 1800 666 111
5 comments |
Website is looking amazing on the IPhone.!! HTML5…??
amazing shots of the event tho!
Will someone arrest the caller for this? The emergency services do a great job, in the time it took them to invalidate this call someone may have died elsewhere. That’s simply despicable, antisocial, dangerous and downright evil!!!
Great photos in very difficult weather conditions and factor in night time as well. Kudos to our emergency services who responded so quickly and efficiently. It is an unfortunate fact of life in Ireland however, that the majority of calls to the 999/112 service are hoax/malicious particularly at “peak” times. Maybe a look at this within our educational/social studies systems would help. B
Wonderful Night Shots of the Incident! Top marks on the reportage which was made in very challenging conditions! I know because I was there! Well done Youghalonline ! Personally I think they should throw the book at this idiot for wasting valuable resources and our country in such a bad state !