Divers continue hunt after man fell into Dow Loch

The 47 year-old man disappeared on Monday beneath the partially frozen surface of Dow Loch in the Cleish Hills in Perth and Kinross.

Police say there is now “no hope” of finding him alive.

His distraught wife and two daughters watched helplessly as he slipped beneath the surface after the family had ventured out onto the ice covered surface of the small loch after sledging on a nearby hillside. He had shouted to his wife and two daughters to get clear of the loch surface when they tried to reach him.

The divers, who had been deployed to the loch for a second day, battled freezing temperatures as they tried to locate his body. The search will resume on Thursday when the Grampian divers are expected to be joined by a team of divers from the Strathclyde division of Police Scotland.

At the height of the search for the missing man, fire crews from Perth, Dundee, Kinross and Lochgelly were joined by two RAF Sea King search-and-rescue helicopters.

The crews of the two rescue helicopters were deployed to break the thick ice by using the downdraft of their rotors, and firefighters also battled in sub-zero temperatures to break the ice so they could deploy sleds and rescue boats.

But as darkness fell there was still no trace of the missing man.

Sergeant Ian Shepherd, from the Tayside division of the national force, who is co-ordinating the search, said the father had fallen into the water when he and his wife and two daughters ventured out on to the ice-covered loch after sledging on a nearby hillside.

He said: “It is a small loch right on the top of the Cleish Hills – little more than a large pool of stagnant water. It had frozen over.

“They had been walking on the loch and the father of the family wandered further out than anybody else and had fallen through the thinner ice as he got towards the middle of the loch.”

Sgt Shepherd continued: “The family had obviously done what they could to reach him, bearing in mind their own safety, but he had shouted to them to get off the ice. The family are absolutely distraught.”

One of the two teenage daughters had raced down the hill to get to a location to get a signal for her mobile phone to call the emergency services.

Sgt Shepherd explained: “It’s quite an inaccessible spot and they were on their own. The eldest daughter ran back down to the road – about distance of a mile – to raise the alarm.

Sgt Shepherd admitted there was now no hope of finding the missing father alive. He said: “I think it moved yesterday from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.

“Today, members of the underwater search team are conducting a sonar search of the loch, and we also have divers in the water. There has been no trace of the missing man so far.”

He said the tragedy should serve as a warning of the

dangers of venturing out on to ice during the cold spell. He added: “Only in very exceptional circumstances should people consider going on to the ice.”

Morven McDonald, a watch manager with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) in Dundee, said the emergency services had been called to Dow Loch shortly before 3pm on Monday, following reports that a man was missing after falling through the ice-covered loch.

She said: “Emergency services have been working in very cold conditions for several hours to resolve the situation, but concerns have heightened with no signs of the man since the alarm was first raised.”

Ms McDonald added: “Sadly, despite the intense and concentrated efforts of all the emergency services at the scene, the casualty has not been located.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were quickly able to mobilise specialist resources, including a full water rescue team. This was a remote location with the loch some way from the roadside and firefighters were only able to reach the incident carrying

specialist equipment on foot.

“Every effort is being made to locate the man with a full

multi-agency response including the SFRS, police, ambulance crews, search-and-rescue helicopters and underwater police search teams.”