POLICE are still trying to trace the relatives of a man who died after a dramatic sea rescue at Blackpool.

The man, who has not been named, was pulled from the water on Monday, March 8 near the south side of North Pier by the three-man crew of Blackpool's inshore lifeboat in the early hours of Monday morning.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said police received a call at 2.30am telling them a man had been spotted in the water.

A search and rescue operation was immediately launched, involving the police helicopter, coastguard and paramedics.

The man, thought to be in his late 20s or early 30s, is understood to have been found unconscious in the water near the sea wall and pulled from the water by the lifeboat crew who began resuscitation on him on their way back to Blackpool Lifeboat Station.

An ambulance was waiting at the station and the man was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where he later died.

A spokesman for Blackpool Police said the man's details were not yet being released and that inquiries were ongoing into the circumstances surrounding his death.