Body found in search for missing fisherman

POLICE divers have recovered the body of a man who went missing while staying at a campsite almost a week ago.

Michael Pringle, 25, was last seen in the Loch Awe area of Argyll early last Sunday.

He and his father had visited a local pub and were returning to their campsite when they became separated.

The body of Mr Pringle, from Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, was found yesterday by divers searching the River Orchy between Kilchurn Castle and the village of Loch Awe.

A police statement said: “There would appear to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. However, a post-mortem will be carried out in due course.”

He had set up camp for a weekend’s pike fishing with his father, Robert Reid, on the shores of Loch Awe.

Pringle disappeared after his night out in the local Tight Line pub in Lochawe on Saturday, 2 February. The two men left together, but became separated.

Last week, a Strathclyde Police helicopter was drafted into the search for the missing man. Land and water searches were carried out in fierce squalls of snow, hail, sleet and rain involving Oban Mountain Rescue Team, Coastguard volunteers from Inveraray and Oban, Strathclyde Police, dogs from the Search and Rescue Dogs Association and Loch Watch Loch Awe volunteers.

The pub that Pringle left was the same one frequented by four anglers from Glasgow before they drowned on Loch Awe four years ago. Craig Currie, 30, Thomas Douglas, 36, William Carty, 47, and Stephen Carty, 42, all died after their boat capsized as they tried to make their way back to their campsite on the opposite shore.