Published: May 23, 2010
Missing six-year-old girl reunited with family after huge beach search

This was the emotional moment that a missing six year-old girl was reunited with her father after a huge search on Sunday afternoon (May 23rd) involving police, coastguards, hovercrafts and lifeboats on Berrow beach.

The alarm was raised at 2pm when distraught father Russell Webb from Wells reported his daughter, Lilly, had gone missing on the beach.

Emergency services were called to the scene and more than 40 people conducted a 90-minute search of the dunes, beach and sea over a two-mile stretch of coastline.

It included teams from Burnham and Weston Coastguard, Burnham Police, BARB, the RNLI, and Brean and Berrow's beach wardens.

At just after 3.30pm, the girl's father was overjoyed to be told that the youngster had been found safe and well in nearby sand dunes by Berrow's beach warden and Burnham Coastguard Dean Davies. There were emotional scenes a few minutes later when Lilly and her father were reunited, as pictured here.

Mr Webb thanked the emergency services for their work, telling Burnham-On-Sea.com: "I am very, very grateful to everyone involved in this search."

"I am so relieved that Lilly is back with us safe and well. We were incredibly worried about her."

The Coastguard's Robin Hewlett told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "A thorough search of the beach had been carried out and we were all very relieved when the girl was found safe and well."

"It followed excellent team working between all the emergency services."

BARB's Light of Elizabeth hovercraft was used during the search to scour the shoreline while a Coastguard helicopter from Chivenor in Devon was also en route to Berrow to join the search when it emerged that the girl had been found.