Family of 7 plucked to safety after hills ordeal

A FAMILY of seven had to be rescued after getting lost in the Galloway hills as temperatures plummeted.

A search helicopter managed to trace the group near Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, after the alarm was raised around 6.30pm on Sunday.

The aircraft used spotlights to allow Galloway Mountain Rescue Team to reach the family, who were checked for injury before being guided to safety.

Earlier, a mother and her 12year-old daughter were airlifted from 3,353ft Buachaille Etive Mor in Glen Coe, Argyll, after the youngster slipped and dislocated her knee.

The girl was taken to Belford Hospital, in Fort William, by a Coastguard helicopter which had just picked up a male walker with an ankle injury at Beinn Pharlagain, near Rannoch Station, Perthshire.

‘As darkness and temperatures were falling, the helicopter went straight to the second casualty, with the first casualty still on board as he did not require immediate hospitalisation,’ said a Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman. ‘After a short search the young girl was located in a tight gully, some 2,500ft up the mountain.’

Scotland awoke to frostcovered ground yesterday, with a low of -6C recorded at Braemar, Aberdeenshire.

Most of the UK will remain largely bright and chilly for the rest of the week, the Met Office said, though parts of Scotland will see clouds, wind and rain.

‘Temperatures and darkness falling’