Scores of Army cadets rescued from mountain

A MAJOR rescue effort was launched after scores of Army cadets were caught in bad weather on a training exercise.

Helicopter crews and mountain rescue teams were sent in to help 63 cadets aged between 12 and 17 and ten instructors in the Mourne Mountains, County Down, yesterday afternoon.

Sixteen of the group from Cleveland Army Cadets, based around Middlesbrough, were suffering from hypothermia. Five had ankle injuries, and four were taken to hospital.

The cadets were at an annual camp based at Ballykinler, an old military base in County Down.

Last night the Ministry of Defence said they were ‘all safe and accounted for’.

Summits of the mountains, which rise to almost 2,800ft, were blanketed with fog and low cloud as heavy rain fell.

The Met Office said that at low elevations in County Down as much as twothirds of an inch of rainfall was recorded, and that the total would have been much higher in the mountains.

Three coastguard teams, members of the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team, police and ambulance crews were involved in the operation.