Police confirmed shortly after 10.30pm that the man was pronounced dead at Scarborough Hospital.

He is believed to be at least 50 years old and lived locally.

He had been taken to hospital by Sea King rescue helicopter arriving at 5.45pm.

The man was wearing just a fleece jacket, jeans and boots when he was seen in the sea.

A man involved in the rescue, who asked not to be indentified, said: "He wasn't wearing a wetsuit or anything, so he wasn't involved in any watersports, by the look of it."

He was spotted in the sea in the North Bay at 4.50pm, by an off duty policeman who alerted the RNLI. The charity's new inshore lifeboat was launched at 5pm and the lifeboat itself joined the operation at 5.24pm.

Flares were sent up and the Sea King helicopter, using heat seeking equipment, also joined the search.

It was the inshore lifeboat crew that rescued him and brought him to shore in the South Bay, just south of the lifeboat house at 5.44pm, where the helicopter had landed. He was immediately taken to Scarborough Hospital.