Angler dies as fishing boat sinks in high winds on loch

A man died and the search for another was called off after a boat with five anglers on board capsized in rough conditions on Loch Lomond.

The boat was one of two to sink on the loch during a day of fishing, which marked the end of the local angling season on Saturday.

Conditions were deteriorating and sailors on the more than 20 boats which had taken to the water reported 4ft-high waves by mid-afternoon. Clyde Coastguard took a 999 call at 6.20pm saying five people were in the water and that their 19ft wooden boat, powered by an outboard motor, was sinking.

Within 40 minutes coastguards had found three people on the loch shore who said their boat had sunk, but realised they were not the fishermen in distress when they said they had not called the emergency services.

The five men on the missing boat were believed to belong to the Vale of Leven and District Angling Club. Efforts were made to contact them on their mobile phones, but no one answered. The Luss rescue boat found three survivors more than two hours after the boat had sunk, floating just north of the small island of Inchmurrin. All were wearing flotation suits.

The men, aged 50, 39 and 25, were hauled from the water, two of them with severe hypothermia, and taken ashore, where they were transferred by ambulance to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. Shortly afterwards, at 8.25pm, the body of the dead man, 36-year-old David Miller, of Dumbarton, was found. The missing man is Andrew Wood, 45, also from Dumbarton.

The Clyde Coastguard, Luss rescue boat and police and Royal Navy helicopters searched a section of the loch near Ross Park until shortly before midnight on Saturday and resumed the search for Mr Wood yesterday before calling it off.

Inspector David Andrew, from Strathclyde Police, said: "Despite every effort by the emergency services, it is with sincere regret that we have had to call off the search for Mr Wood."