FRIENDS of a Sedbury man who fell into the River Wye have started a campaign to try and find him.

Rikki Baldwin fell from the new Wye Bridge in the early hours of Monday morning after a night out in Chepstow.

A Facebook group set up to help find him had 5,560 members within 24 hours.

Mr Baldwin is 24-years-old was wearing a blue t-shirt and black jeans and black shoes when last seen.

It is believed he was with his girlfriend when he went into the river.

Emergency services from both sides of the border were involved and the rescue operation included the police helicopter and people on the riverbanks using thermal imaging cameras.

A command centre was established at SARA's Beachley station.

The Severn Area Rescue Association received a call-out at 1.15am but the boat search was suspended at 3.15am because of the rapidly falling tide.

SARA resumed the search at 8am on both land and in the water but no trace was found of the missing man despite the search area being widened.

Gloucestershire Police have been in close liaison with Mr Baldwin's family since he disappeared.

Anyone with information about Mr Baldwin's movements, who has not yet spoken to police, is asked to ring 101 quoting incident number 29 of April 9.

There is a Facebook group dedicated to the search for Mr Baldwin called Find Missing Rikki Baldwin.

The search for Mr Baldwin was the second call-out for SARA on the Easter weekend.

In an incident unrelated to Mr Baldwin's disappearance, a boat was called to recover what was believed to be a firearm from the foot of the old Wye Bridge in the centre of Chepstow but it turned out to be an imitation gun.