A PENSIONER has died following a dramatic rescue bid at a north-east fishing port.
Robert Strachan was recovered from the water at Fraserburgh Harbour on Saturday morning.
Emergency services were called to the scene, off Shore Street, just after 9am.
Mr Strachan, 66, was taken by air-ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where he was declared dead.
Last night, his family said they did not know what caused Mr Strachan to end up in the harbour.
It is understood he had not been in the water for very long before he was pulled out by the town’s lifeboat crew.
The incident happened beside the Fraserburgh Harbour Commissioners’ office.
A spokesman for Aberdeen Coastguard said police had contacted their office about reports of a man falling into the water at around 9.15am. The Fraserburgh’s lifeboat Willie and May Gall was launched from its nearby berth moments later.
Police said Mr Strachan’s body was traced and taken from the harbour within an hour.
A spokesman for the force said: “We can confirm that the body of a 66-year-old man, local to Fraserburgh, was recovered from the town’s harbour on Saturday morning. He was conveyed to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where life was pronounced extinct.”
He said that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. A report to the local procurator fiscal will be submitted in due course.
Yesterday, Mr Strachan’s daughter, Alison Daniel, said that the family was waiting to hear more details about the incident from police.
Fraserburgh residents said Mr Strachan, who stayed at the town’s Caledonia Court, was known to friends as Muscles.
The former fish factory worker was a keen photographer who was often seen in the harbour area taking snaps of boats and port activity.
Police were unable to comment on speculation that he may have been taking pictures when he fell from the quayside.
Onlookers said Mr Strachan had left or dropped his walking stick on the harbour wall before he went in the water.
A large area around the site was cordoned off by police while the search for Mr Strachan was ongoing.
A Sea King rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth landed at North Links, near Fraserburgh Leisure Centre, to transfer Mr Strachan to hospital.
Saturday’s rescue attempt comes just days after police divers recovered the body of a Latvian fish worker from the same harbour.
Dmitrijs Kirilovs had been missing for seven months before he was found in the water. It is believed he may have slipped while trying to board a berthed vessel.