A search for a man who fell overboard from an Irish Sea ferry has been called off, after no trace of him could be found.

Helicopters manned by RAF and Irish coastguard crews joined an air-sea rescue operation, when the man was seen falling from a deck of the Stena Explorer.

The Holyhead all-weather lifeboat was also launched during the emergency operation, which began shortly after 2300GMT on Thursday.

Coastguards said the man would only have been able to survive in the water for a short time and the search was called off after several hours.

Spotlights

It is understood that the man had asked the crew of the ferry, which was travelling from Dun Laoghaire, where he could get some fresh air and was directed to the ship's smoking deck.

He was seen falling from the railings when the high-speed catamaran was 22 miles west off Holyhead.

The crew of the Stena Explorer, helped by the crew from two other ferries, used spot lights to begin a search based around the spot where they had dropped a smoke marker at the time of the incident.

Holyhead coastguards co-ordinated the operation, eventually extending the search area to six and a half square miles.

The RAF helicopter came from Valley on Anglesey.

The Irish coastguard helicopter was fitted with heat-sensitive night vision cameras.

'Covered thoroughly'

After several hours, and in deteriorating weather conditions, with north-easterly winds gusting to force eight, the search was called off.

Geoff Lunt, Watch Manager at Holyhead Coastguards, said the area had been "covered thoroughly."

The Stena fast ferry was travelling at 36 knots and the man would have fallen into the path of four massive water jets that propel the vessel forward.

The jets pump out 100 tonnes of water a second and Mr Lunt said he agreed with the ferry's captain that there are doubts that the man could have survived the fall, let alone remained conscious.

There are no plans to restart the search or to try to recover the body.