POLICE and the Ashburton Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team linked up to help a missing dog walker in atrocious weather on the moor last weekend.

Devon & Cornwall Police said they received a call from an elderly man who had got lost near Piles Copse in the Erme valley on Saturday. The man was cold, wet, and exhausted, and said he could not see the screen of his phone because the weather was so bad.

Officers made their way across the moor on foot and located the man, who was showing early signs of hypothermia and unable to walk any further. The casualty was shielded from the elements and given first aid while DSRT members made their way to the scene, on the old tramway just north of Piles Copse, to help getting the man off the moor.

Both of the Ashburton team’s Land Rovers were used to evacuate casualty and police officers, the dog walker to a waiting ambulance, and the officers to their cars.

Police later offered their thanks to the Ashburton DSRT, while the team described the operation as having ’a good outcome in what were very poor conditions’.