On Saturday evening (15/08/2020), volunteer crew of the Southport Lifeboat crew were paged to join a multi-agency search for two missing teenagers, believed to have been cut off by the tide on St Annes beach.
The Southport Lifeboat, Heather White, launched at 20:00 and joined RNLI lifeboats from Blackpool and Lytham St Annes, Coastguard Helicopter 936, Coastguard Rescue teams from Lytham and Fleetwood, Lancashire Police and North West Ambulance in a large-scale search coordinated by Holyhead Coastguard.
Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, 16, from Dewsbury got into difficulty on St Annes beach when they became cut off by the tide with their cousin.
The search carried on until 01:40 when bad light meant that the difficult decision was made to postpone further searching until first light on Sunday morning.
The Southport Lifeboat recovered at 02:20 and refuelled, relaunching with a new crew at 05:00 to resume the search.
Following a further five and a half hours of searching, the search on the water was called off with nothing found.
At 14:50 our quad and UAV teams set off on a tideline search of the beach from Southport beach north towards Lytham. During this search we received notification that two bodies had been recovered near Lytham, believed to be those of Muhammad Azhar and Ali Athar Shabbir.
Nick Porter, Lifeboat Coxswain said; “Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Muhammad Azhar and Ali Athar at this sad and difficult time.
“Many different agencies worked hard together in a massive search coordinated by HM Coastguard. We were out for over six hours initially with the Lifeboat and that was followed by a second crew searching for a further five and a half on Sunday morning.
“Unfortunately, we heard the news when we were out searching for a third time with the Quads and UAVs.
“The crew here are obviously upset and deflated that the boys weren’t found sooner. It is a difficult situation for our volunteers to be in as we have been very busy this summer and have been able to help so many people who have found themselves in difficulty.
“Ultimately though it is the Shabbir family that we feel most for. What started off as a family outing to the seaside on a nice day has turned into a tragedy. Our deepest sympathy goes out to them at this time.”
The Southport Offshore Rescue Trust is an independent charity that provides a 24-hour lifesaving service covering between the River Mersey and the River Ribble, and up to 25 miles offshore.
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