Sheringham Lifeboat was scrambled tonight amid fears a body was floating around 60 metres offshore.

Brian Farrow, lifeboat operations manager at Sheringham Lifeboat Station explained: 'The local police had been watching what they thought might be a body in the water approximately 60 metres offshore floating down with the flood tide.

'The round 'head' of the object was just above the water line and it was apparent from the shadow that a significant portion remained below water.'

After it was agreed that it was not possible to verify whether the object was a body or not, the Sheringham Lifeboat was paged by Humber Coastguard at 7.35pm and proceeded to the area.

However, it turned out the object was a black bin liner with trapped air which kept a small area of the bag afloat, with the bulk of the bag showing as a shadow below the water line.