Police have vowed to continue the hunt for a man missing in a Kinross-shire loch for as long as it takes to recover his body.
The pledge was made after police divers spent a third day searching for the father-of-two at ice-bound Dow Loch. The search began around 10.30am and, after spending the day searching the western half of the loch, divers concluded it at 5pm.
Another team of divers is set to return to the area this morning. The 47-year-old man was on a family day out with his wife and daughters on Monday when he plunged through the ice.
The group had been sledging before they walked out on to the surface of the ice. As he tried to pull himself from the water, the man ensured his family were safe by ordering them off the ice.
They then watched as he spent around 20 minutes trying to free himself from the water before slipping under shortly after 3pm.
Firefighters from the single Scottish service and divers from a Police Scotland team worked late into Monday night to try to find the man, but police later admitted that the incident had changed from a rescue to a recovery.
Divers spent several hours on Tuesday combing the loch bed with sonar before searching the water manually. The man has not yet been named, but it is believed he lived in rural Kinross-shire and was a frequent visitor to the Dow Loch area.
Asked if the search could be called off before the man is found, Sergeant Ian Shepherd said: “At the moment that’s not really an option.
“There’s no way out [of the loch] for a body, the body’s not going to go anywhere, so at the moment it’s a task they’ll finish they’ll be here until he’s found. If it takes a week, they’ll be here.”
He added that the search area had moved from the ice-free area where the man fell in towards the ice-covered edges of the loch.
He said: “The man is possibly under the bits with the ice. This afternoon we have been concentrating on the bit to the west.
“The reason they are concentrating on that area is that it would seem the family have been at that end of the loch, they’ve walked in that way, the helicopter’s come in from that way so it’s possibly blown him back but it’s only a suspicion.”
He said: “The loch is full of reeds, it’s quite peaty and muddy. He was in his winter clothing, greens and browns unfortunately. They are searching more or less by touch. They are also using sonar.”
He added that the man would not be formally pronounced dead until the body was recovered from the loch and paramedics had been called to the scene.