Missing canoeists found safe

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The man and woman paddled out into the freezing waters of Loch Awe, near Oban, Argyll, on Monday lunchtime.

Their host at a local B&B alerted the coastguard at around 9.30pm, as the weather deteriorated and they had still not returned from the trip.

The pair, who have not been named, were found by coastguards at around 2.15am on Tuesday on the loch island of Innis Chonnell, where they had decided to camp for the night without telling anyone.

Twenty coastguards, five police officers and a number of local volunteers were mobilised to find the canoeists, aided by a helicopter, two boats and five other rescue vehicles.

A spokesman for Clyde Coastguard put the cost of the operation at around £6,000.

Stuart Atkinson, watch officer for the coastguard, said the pair should have told their host at the B&B they were planning to spend the night camping.

"If you are going to do this kind of thing you should let people ashore know you're doing it," he said.

"You don't expect people to go camping at this time of year, so our advice would be: always let somebody ashore know where you're going and when you're going to be back, otherwise this is what happens."

Snow flurries and dense fog initially hampered the rescue efforts, and only a lull in conditions at around 1.30am allowed coastguards to get on to the island to find the pair. The canoeists, who are in their 30s and from Leeds, were staying in Blarghour, near Oban.