Coastguard rushes to help 'drowning parachutist' which turns out to be a Spiderman balloon

Lifeboat crews who made an emergency launch to rescue a drowning parachutist arrived to find a large Spiderman balloon floating on the water's surface.

Sunderland RNLI and Sunderland and Seaham Coastguard were called out following reports of a "parachutist in the water" struggling off the coast of Ryhope Dene.

A Coastguard Rescue Helicopter was also dispatched to investigate the situation.

A concerned onlooker rang lifeboat crews after spotting the object from the shore.

The Coastguard confirmed an object was in the water, and raced to the scene, where they discovered it was not a parachutist, but the web-spinning super-hero.

The balloon was brought back to the lifeboat station to prevent any further call-outs

The crew took a picture of the deflating balloon when they returned.

A spokesman for the RNLI said: "The incident was a false alarm with good intent and the person did the right thing to call us to confirm no-one was in danger."