Coastguards rushed to save a parachutist who ditched in the sea only to find they were rescuing an Action Man toy. Passers-by raised the alarm after seeing a silhouetted figure hit the water off Hastings, East Sussex, at around 3.40pm. The Hastings lifeboat was launched, and began a hunt more than a quarter mile out at sea. However, when the coastguard crew finally tracked down the parachutist it turned out to be the popular plastic hero toy. A spokesman said: "We located Action Man just after teatime. It looks like a kid tied him to some helium balloons and set him loose. He must have gone up pretty high, because it came down from above the clouds, and appeared very much like a man in a parachute crash-landing. Now we just have to find the kid who is missing his favourite toy," the spokesman added.