A FIVE-HOUR police operation involving a spotter plane was launched at the weekend - for the sake of a nosebleed.

The police aircraft, mounted officers and search units joined CID and uniformed officers after substantial pools of blood were found on a Teesside cycle track. The search, near the Tees Barrage, took about five hours on Saturday before it was found that the blood was the result of a cyclist having a nosebleed as he cycled between the train station in Thornaby and Portrack Lane, in Stockton.

Police had sealed off the area after a jogger reported seeing two pools of blood near some discarded woman's clothing at about 9.45am.

Detectives were already looking for a missing teenage girl and were concerned she might have been attacked.

The police plane was briefly used to check marshland and search officers and mounted police also trawled the area.

Meanwhile, CID and uniformed officers made inquiries at pubs and a caravan park.

It was discovered that the clothing had lain there for some weeks. The missing girl returned home the same day.

Detective Inspector Colin Green, of Stockton CID, said: "The discarded clothing was similar to what the girl had been wearing when she went missing. On the basis of that, we decided to launch the search."