Search for kayaker moves to recovery operation

Irish Coastguard helicopter Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The Irish Coastguard said they would like to express their condolences to the man's family

  • Published

A search and rescue operation for a kayaker who went missing off the coast of County Donegal has now moved to a body recovery mission, the Irish Coastguard has confirmed.

The alarm was first raised when a man, aged in his 50s, failed to return after setting off from Gweedore pier in a kayak on Thursday evening.

A kayak was then later found on Friday night.

In a statement issued through the Department for Transport on Tuesday, the Irish Coastguard said they would like to express their condolences to the man's family.

Low water searches on Tuesday

The Irish Coastguard said they are now "co-coordinating declared maritime resources" in support of An Garda Síochána (the Irish police service) missing person search operations.

They confirmed that low water searches will be conducted again on Tuesday.

A multi-agency search operation involving shoreline searches, boats, helicopters and drone searches have previously been carried out.

A scaled-back operation was then carried out on Monday.

The UK Coastguard previously told BBC News NI that they were stood down from searches on Friday.

A spokesperson for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) also previously said their crews at their lifeboat stations in Arranmore and Lough Swilly had also not been tasked to help with the search carried out on Monday.