TAVISTOCK search and rescue volunteers launched a major search on Dartmoor for a missing Royal Marine who got lost on a training exercise.

Forty members of Dartmoor Search and Rescue Tavistock (DSRT) and Dartmoor Search and Rescue Plymouth (DSRP) joined military personnel to search for the marine around the Gutter Tor area of Dartmoor late on Tuesday, April 24. After a search of over an hour involving a Coastguard helicopter, the 22-year-old serviceman was found safe and well.

The teams were called out by the police shortly before midnight on Tuesday evening after the man failed to check in on a leg of a navigation route which was part of a training exercise.

He was last seen heading into the mist on the correct bearing at 3.40pm on Tuesday.

After an initial search by military personnel, the team were asked by the police to help.

A spokesman for the DSRT said that 30 military personnel joined them to search for the marine, deployed within DSRT teams.

The Coastguard helicopter was scrambled from Newquay to search the area over Gutter Tor, Sheepstor and Ringmoor Down with a thermal imaging camera.

It was then systematically searched by foot teams and rescue dog teams from the Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA).

The missing man was found by one of the teams just before 1.30am on Wednesday morning.

‘He was safe and well and was escorted back to the scout hut at the foot of Gutter Tor,’ said a DSRT spokesman.

‘A navigational error had caused him to miss his checkpoint. He turned north in an attempt to pick up the road, but had already overshot that and ended up 3km away, near Plym Ford.

‘Realising he was lost, he settled down for a long cold night but responded to the noise of horns from the search team.’