A DISTRESSED man called a radio station telling them he was going to jump off a bridge and into a river.

Lifeboat crews, based at Sunderland Lifeboat Station, were scrambled into action shortly after 7pm last night as part of large search operation along the River Wear.

Sunderland's RNLI Atlantic 85 and IB-1 class inshore lifeboats were scrambled along with three shore-based Coastguard teams, Sunderland & Seaham Coastguard Rescue Teams, and Sunderland Volunteer Life Brigade VLB.

Northumbria Police also sent a number of patrol vehicles to assist with the incident, along with a police helicopter from the North East Air Support Unit.

Paul Nicholson, senior helmsman at Sunderland RNLI said: "After initially checking the bridges over the river, it was necessary for us to deploy a large number of assets to carry out a full search of the river itself".

The two lifeboats carried out a thorough search of the two-and-a-half-mile stretch of river, while other rescuers searched the river banks on foot between Corporation Quay and Pallion Shipyard.

Shortly after 8.30pm, coastguards based at Humber Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre called off the search after no further sightings were reported.

Mr Nicholson said: "The decision to terminate the search was taken after the entire search party was happy that a thorough search of the area had been carried out.

"At this time it is unclear if this incident was sparked by genuine or hoax telephone call, if anyone has any further information about the incident they should contact either Northumbria Police or HM Coastguard."