Emergency services and the police helicopter were mobilised last night for a dramatic river rescue which ended in tragedy.

Police, fire, ambulance and paramedics were called out at 8pm last night after a man was spotted in the Calder River in Ravensthorpe.

Five fire crews, including firefighters from Rastrick and Mirfield, attended the scene and water-rescue trained officers scoured the banks in the darkness above and below the Calder Road bridge where the man was thought to have entered the water.

Using searchlights and thermal imaging equipment, the police helicopter alerted the teams to what was believed to be a person in the water.

An inflatable rescue sled was launched with swift water-trained fire officers and an ambulance heart team.

No one could be found and following a further call from the eyewitness, all the officers were redeployed several hundred yards upstream, along with a second inflatable.

The police helicopter’s sophisticated heat-seeking equipment then picked up signs of a person and a man was plucked out of the water by fire crews and paramedics searching along the river banks.

The casualty, a man aged about 60, was unconscious and was given CPR at the scene, near Ravensthorpe Industrial Estate in Lock Way.

He was taken to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield where he later died.

The police helicopter joins in the search for a man who was eventually rescued from the River Calder in Ravensthorpe. Pic by Ash Milnes