A mysterious flashing light witnessed off the west side of Isle of Cumbrae sparked an emergency call.

On the evening of Tuesday September 14 at 7.44pm, Largs Lifeboat responded to a request from UK Coastguard to a report of the incident seen in Bell Bay.

The volunteer crew carried out a shoreline search as did the shore based Coastguard team,

RNLI spokesman Alasdair Woods explained the mystery: "The lifeboat crew located a bunch of balloons with a reflective sparling material attached, this material was thought to be the source of the flashing light.

"The balloons and material were disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner."

The lifeboat returned to station where the Covid19 de-contamination procedure was carried out making her ready for her next service at 9.30pm.