Shotley Peninsula: Trail of footprints found as officers probe Orwell car discovery
A FULL-SCALE rescue operation was launched after a car was spotted on the banks of the River Orwell.
Police officers were called by a member of the public at 4.45am on Monday.
They arrived to discover a car had rolled into the mud alongside the river and sustained significant damage.
There were footprints in the mudflats trailing from the car to the edge of the riverbank and the officers scoured the area in the hope of finding clues which would reveal the cause of the collision.
A spokesman for Suffolk police said the driver of the silver Ford Focus may have lost control of the car while attempting to navigate a bend on the B1456, on the Freston side of the river. They believe the car was heading towards the Shotley peninsula.
He said officers called on the Thames Coastguard to search the river with concerns for the whereabouts of the driver.
A Thames Coastguard spokesman said that Harwich RNLI Lifeboat and the Inshore Lifeboat had been tasked to search the area underneath the Orwell Bridge with the help of Holbrook Coastguard.
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He added: “The car had no persons inside and a search of the river was conducted by the lifeboats and coastguard. Nothing untoward was found in the river.”
The owner of the car, who told police she had bought it the previous week, has been traced.
The police spokesman added: “We located the Ipswich owner who subsequently reported the car stolen.”
Police are continuing to investigate this incident.
