Hope fades as rescue teams call off search for missing angler

THE search for an angler missing after his boat capsized on a loch has been called off.

Clyde coastguard followed up extensive sea and air searches on Saturday with further searches along the shore of Loch Etive yesterday but failed to find the man, believed to be in his 30s and from Glasgow.

He was one of a party of five spending the bank holiday weekend camping and fishing in the remote northern part of the loch, which stretches 20 miles from its head, near Glencoe, down to Connel Bridge, near Oban.

Four of the men managed to swim to the shore after strong winds caused their boat to overturn early in the afternoon on Saturday. Yesterday it emerged that two of them then faced a harrowing ordeal in their bid to raise the alarm.

With no mobile phone reception, they ran from the freezing loch to their vehicle, parked some distance away. They drove to the nearest house - only to find there was no-one at home.

Elizabeth Cattanach, of Hollybank, Glen Etive, the house nearest the scene of the accident, said: "They called here to make a phone call, but there was nobody in the house. When they got no response, they then had to go another couple of miles to find the next house."

The men eventually arrived at Glen View, the home of James and Betty Lawrie.

Mrs Lawrie said: "They were distraught because obviously they had possibly lost their friend. It doesn't look good.

"The men were in their thirties and I think they were from Glasgow. They must have walked a considerable distance to their car after getting out of the water. My husband was in and they made a phone call to the police from our house."

It is believed the men got out of the water about 2:30pm on Saturday but it was 4:13pm before they managed to call the police.

A Clyde Coastguard spokeswoman said that yesterday's search of Loch Etive had found no trace on the missing man.

She said: "At this point in time, all the criteria have been looked at and the decision has been taken to suspend the search."

A full land, air and sea search on Saturday saw Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team's boat crew recover the men's 15ft wooden boat from the water.

A Strathclyde Police helicopter and an RAF rescue helicopter from Lossiemouth joined Oban Lifeboat, Oban Coastguard boat, and coastguard volunteers from Oban, Appin and Fort William for the initial search, which went on until darkness fell.

Oban Lifeboat coxswain Ronnie MacKillop, who co-ordinated the search, said: "There were very strong squalls coming down the loch, the wind speed was up to force 5 on occasions, it was just blowing right down the loch.Loch Etive, it's a very narrow loch and the wind seems to accelerate down the side of the hills.

"We gave the loch a thorough search, travelling 16 miles from Bonawe right up to the head of the loch, but we didn't find anything."

The four who managed to reach the shore were given a medical check up and were recovering from their ordeal yesterday.

Their boat is being kept by police, in case it is needed for a future investigation.