Multi-agency response leads to girls’ safe rescue from the Mournes

Seven teenage girls have been rescued from the Mournes after getting into difficulty earlier today.

PSNI Inspector Duncan McBain said a search and rescue operation was launched after police established that a 999 call made on Monday afternoon had come from a mobile registered to one of a Girls’ Brigade group camping on the mountain.

He said: “The call had been disconnected before the operator could speak to the caller and numerous attempts by police to re-establish a connection with the phone failed.

“Local police officers, PSNI Search and Rescue specialists, and Mourne Mountain Rescue Team were involved in the operation to locate the group and ensure their welfare due to fading visibility and poor weather conditions on the mountain.

Paramedics were also tasked to the scene and were on stand-by in the event any of the group needed medical treatment.”

The group was subsequently located by the search teams and was safely removed from the mountain.

Two of the girls were suffering the effects of extreme cold and one was taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution.

All have now been reunited with their parents.

Inspector McBain added: “I would like to thank all of the agencies involved in the rescue operation and our colleagues from Irish Coastguard who also tasked a helicopter to assist.”