FEARS were growing last night after the search for a missing fisherman continues.

Police have scoured the cliffs, beaches and caves between Grants Houses and Easington Colliery, in County Durham, for George Derbyshire, of nearby Blackhall.

It is feared that the 61-yearold security officer may have been swept out to sea.

His wife, Rose, 62, said she spoke to him on his mobile phone at about noon on Tuesday, when he said he was intending to return home.

“I can’t tell you how I feel.

It’s getting a long time for someone to be missing on the beach,” she said.

An angler died on January 6 when a cliff collapsed because of the icy weather. Jeff Nixon, 49, from Ashington, Northumberland, was casting from the coast near Newbiggin-by-the- Sea, Northumberland, when a section of land gave way.

Greg Albrighton, of HM Coastguard, urged anglers to think about the potential risks inherent when fishing from the coast, especially in winter and in the dark.

Another angler has been rescued after falling 40ft from a jetty at a derelict industrial site.

Two fishermen who helped him have been praised by firefighters, who were called to the old pumping station at the former site of Steetley Magnesite on Hartlepool’s Headland.

Rescuers battled for twoand- half hours before the injured man could be flown by RAF Sea King helicopter to The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, on Wednesday night. The alarm was raised at 7.30pm when the unnamed man, aged between 40 and 60, fell down a manhole and hit a steel girder before landing in the water at the bottom.

Two other fishermen climbed down and hauled him from the icy water.

Fire watch manager Gerard Suggitt said: “The two fishermen and the initial paramedic did very, very well.”

During the operation, 40 rescue workers helped the man, who suffered suspected spinal and pelvic injuries.