Conwy’s inshore lifeboat, the May-Bob, was launched on Sunday evening to investigate reports of a red flare being sighted in Conwy Bay.

An RNLI spokesman said: “A member of the public had reported sighting a red distress flare, indicating somebody may be in grave and imminent danger.

“The May-Bob conducted an extensive search from the River Conwy out to the open sea.

“At the same time the Llandudno Coastguard rescue team was deployed along the coast to make a search from landside.

“The Llandudno lifeboat, William F Yates, joined the search later in the evening.

“A small fishing vessel was spotted to seaward during the search, and it’s crew confirmed they hadn’t seen anything untoward and were on passage back to Conwy.

“The search continued using night vision equipment from the May-Bob and the radar on the William F Yates.

“However the extensive search found nothing and it was decided that the call was a false alarm made with good intent.”