by Chris Hunter

An RAF Sea King Helicopter, police and coastguard rescue teams were drafted in to search for a missing man.

Initial reports suggested the 46-year-old man was in a vulnerable state and had headed to the Strand riverside area of Gllingham in the early hours of this morning.

The rescue team, totalling more than 35 officers from different services, then received further information that the man, from Newington, had headed inland.

The Sea King team directed officers on foot as the hunt focused on woodland at Darland Banks nature reserve, Gillingham, where the man was finally found hiding at about 8.45am.

Medway Coastguard's deputy station officer Richard Rodgers said his team were happy the search had a positive outcome.

Several eyewitnesses reported seeing the Sea King helicopter swooping low over the area. Police ran into woodland as the search reached its climax, and a heavy-set man man in a red fleece was seen being led out of the undergrowth.

See pictures from the hunt below. Photos by Roger Vaughan.