THOSE who sent a series of flares up over the Dorset coast are risking the lives of volunteers from the RNLI, officials said yesterday.

The two lifeboats based at Poole have been launched twice this week after the red flares were reported by a number of people.

On both occasions, volunteers launched a huge search in stormy conditions. Nothing was found.

However, after the second launch at 9.30pm on Wednesday, the crew found spent flare casings on land in Ham Park.

Conditions during the second occasion have been described by the volunteers as "poor", with strong winds.

Paul Glatzel, volunteer lifeboat operations manager, said: “It appears that our crews launched in very challenging conditions to distress flares launched without just cause.

"We believe this as spent flare casings were found ashore.

"This is the second time this week we have launched to reports of flares and is unacceptable.

"It risks the safety of our volunteer lifeboat crews and the volunteer coastguard rescue team that responded.

"Additionally, it is a waste of the funds that our community works so hard to raise to support the work of our volunteers and station, and risks distracting the coastguard and lifeboats from assisting those in genuine distress.

"We ask that the Poole community shares our message widely that to launch distress flares when there is no reason to do so is unacceptable.

"We will always launch to assist those needing our assistance but ask for the support of our community in preventing future potentially hoax calls."

It is illegal to fire flares on land or in a harbour. It is also illegal to fire flares at sea for testing, practice or as fireworks.

Damaged or out of date flares should never be used. They should be disposed of safely as soon as possible.