A major search for three missing swimmers has been abandoned after rescuers decided it was a false alarm.

The Coastguard received a call from a member of the public in the early hours of yesterday morning to report three men in difficulty in the sea near West Street, Brighton.

The caller made the report at about 12.30am and put the receiver down without leaving any other details. The Coastguard was forced to make a decision that the call was a genuine report and launched a search.

The swimmers plunged into the water to cool off as their friends partied on the shore at the bottom of West Street, Brighton.

Their friends lost sight of them in the darkness and alerted police and the Coastguard who launched a two-hour search for the missing men. Two lifeboats from Shoreham and the Brighton Marina lifeboat began an intense sea search covering more than two miles of coastline.

Parachute flares were fired to illuminate the scene in a bid to pick out anyone in the water.

The Sussex Police helicopter was scrambled from its base at Shoreham airport to join the search and its crew used infra-red heatseeking cameras to look for any signs of life on the sea surface.

The searchers' fears heightened when a rucksack containing clothes, student identity papers and a successful job application letter were found on the beach.

Police later ruled the student out as a possible drowning victim after he came forward and said his rucksack had been stolen.

A spokesman for the Coastguard said it had to take the call seriously and believed it was made by a member of the public with good intentions.

Shoreham lifeboat spokesman, Dave Casson, said the two remaining swimmers would be treated as missing until rescuers had confirmation they were safe.

However, the Coastguard today said the report of the missing swimmers was now being treated as a false alarm and the search had been called off.

Mr Casson said: "We appeal to anyone who loses their clothes in this way to let us know that they are safe. It avoids us having to launch a major search along the coast for them."