Abergavenny mountain rescue team's role in search for April Jones (From Free Press Series)

Abergavenny mountain rescue team's role in search for April Jones

12:30pm Saturday 13th October 2012 in News

AN Abergavenny-based mountain rescue team has been involved in the search for missing April Jones in Machynlleth.

The Longtown Mountain Recue Team, which is run by volunteers, was called in last Tuesday alongside other teams in the search for April.

The teams were briefed alongside other response groups and local volunteers, and continued their work into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Team members made the journey home for just a few hours of sleep, and then returned on Wednesday, again working until the early hours, and again on Thursday, in appalling weather conditions.

Delwyn Moseley, a tree surgeon from Monmouthshire, said: "It was absolutely torrential, pitch black, and incredibly demanding, both physically and mentally. We were out in it for hours."

Mark Nicholls, a chartered surveyor from Abergavenny and the Longtown MRT Team Leader said: "Team members were incredibly grateful for the generosity and support of the local people, in what must be very testing circumstances."

During this period, there were further callouts, including a missing walker on Hay Bluff who was located by Longtown MRT members who had just returned from the April Jones search early on Friday morning, and a collapsed person on Pen y Fan on Sunday October 7, who was evacuated by air ambulance.

The team has an operational membership of 40 to provide a service which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Each member trains regularly and is in a constant state of readiness to deploy. The Longtown Mountain rescue team operates as far north as the southern reaches of Snowdonia and south to the Bristol Channel.

All mountain rescue teams have now stood down from the search.