By Liz Fowler and Jennifer Cosgrove

A MAN stuck fast in the mud in Montrose Basin yesterday afternoon guided rescuers towards him using his mobile phone.

The drama began just after 3pm when 37-year-old David Murray of Carnoustie realised he had become trapped and managed to call the Tayside Fire and Rescue service on his mobile.

The Montrose coastguard mud rescue team was alerted and swung into action in a joint operation with fire and rescue service crews from Montrose and Dundee and Montrose police officers.

Unfamiliar to the area, Mr Murray was unable to give his position in the basin, which covers 1000 hectares. The emergency service operator kept him on the phone and he was able to guide fire engines towards him by saying whether the sirens were getting louder.

He was eventually located on the south side in a cove between Old Montrose and the basin wildlife centre.

He was around 80 metres from the shore sucked into a hole with one leg totally out of sight in the mud and a shoulder and arm partly immersed.

The mud rescue team was able to reach him using their flat bottom stretcher kitted with an air bottle and lance.

The lance was pushed under his body then air injected into the vacuum it had created so that he could be freed then hauled ashore with the help of the fire and rescue service. Slipping into unconsciousness, Mr Murray received treatment on the bank by the emergency personnel on hand and was given oxygen until the arrival of ambulance paramedics.

He was taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

“He had been out walking on the mudflats but had just taken a step too far and seems to have slipped into a bit of a hole,” said Darryl White, coastguard sector manager. “He was able to dial 999 and ask for the fire service, but couldn’t give his position. All he could tell us was that he could see the Montrose bridge over his left shoulder.

“He had been stuck for a while and being trapped in mud restricts the blood vessels. Once people are pulled clear their blood pressure drops dramatically. This man started losing consciousness as soon as we got him to the embankment.”

The specialist Montrose mud rescue team was set up by the coastguards in 1996 after two boys attempting to walk across the basin became stuck.

“When you get stuck in the mud it’s the vacuum you create that traps you, and not as people often think the weight of your body,” said Mr White. “We break this vacuum by injecting air or water.”

Tayside Fire and Rescue community safety manager Stewart Edgar said that they received a distress call from Mr Murray. “Two appliances were sent from Montrose, along with the heavy rescue unit from Dundee,” he said. “The major problem was that the engines did not know exactly where he was trapped.”

The man, who was up to his waist in mud and still sinking, remained on the phone for over 45 minutes while somebody from the Dundee control room gave constant reassurance.

The Montrose coastguard crew had received the call-out just as they returned to station after assisting their colleagues at Arbroath in rescuing a dog which had fallen over the cliffs.