FORTY members of the Dartmoor Rescue Team were called out in the early hours of Sunday morning, to search for a 27-year-old man from Southampton who was missing on the moor wearing just a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The man, who had been staying at the River Dart Country Park, Ashburton, had wandered off from the hotel car park, sparking a major search involving a white water team and a police helicopter. He was found six hours later on the other side of the A38, heading towards Totnes. Controller of the Tavistock branch of the Dartmoor Rescue Team, Bud Francis, said they received reports that the man was intoxicated and suffered from sleep walking. 'The weather was cold, two degrees centigrade on our arrival with cold wintry showers,' he said. 'After an initial search we had to widen our search into the surrounding area which included lots of woods and lanes. With the river like it was there was a fear that he might have fallen into it.' The man was tired and cold but otherwise in reasonable condition when he was found at 9.30am.
