FOUR men who were drinking alcohol on small dinghy sparked a rescue operation last night.

Barrow RNLI launch their inshore lifeboat to a report of persons in difficulty in Walney Channel at around 10.30pm.

The initial call came from Liverpool Coastguard requesting lifeboat assistance following a call to them from Cumbria Police.

The police had been informed by a passer-by that he could hear shouting from the channel area and was worried that people may be in the water having fallen from a boat in the channel, which straddles Walney Island and mainland Barrow.

The lifeboat arrived at the scene at 10.53pm and started scouring the area whilst communicating with patrols from Furness Coastguard and Cumbria Police.

Just before 11pm the lifeboat crew located four men on a vessel in the middle of the channe on a small dinghy. 

The men were consuming alcohol and were talking in loud voices which carried for a good distance in the night air, and the crew formed the opinion that these were the voices heard by the original informant.

The police had requested that the lifeboat be allowed to transport an officer to the boat to speak with the men and after returning the officer to shore the lifeboat was stood down and made her way back to the station.