Emergency services will be training on Dartmoor this weekend

Emergency services will be taking part in a missing person search and rescue exercise on Saturday. 

Devon and Cornwall Police, together with other emergency services and volunteer agencies will be taking part in a multi-agency training exercise on Saturday, 20 March.

The teams will be running a missing person search and rescue exercise at Haytor Common, which concludes a week-long training course for police officers.

The exercise will run throughout the day and is designed to encourage collaborative working between key search and rescue services, who may be called to assist with a search for a missing person.

Emergency services and volunteer agencies taking part will include HM Coastguard, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue (Urban Search and Rescue Team), Dartmoor Search and Rescue Teams, Cornwall Search and Rescue and Devon and Cornwall 4x4 Response.

Many of those taking part are voluntary charities and both their ability to train and fundraise has been impacted by the pandemic, with this being the first opportunity for critical multi agency training in almost a year.

The event will be managed in a COVID secure way in order to mitigate risk and everyone taking part will adhere to PPE requirements and social distancing guidelines.

Police Search Manager, PC Stu Mines said: “In person training is absolutely crucial for multi-agency response, particularly as we head towards a busy summer period without having trained together in person for almost 12 months due to COVID.

“This exercise is designed to replicate a potential scenario that our services could be called to respond to and the aim is to test the management processes and response to a large-scale search for vulnerable missing people.

“We want the experience to be as realistic as possible to allow those taking part to really immerse themselves. Numerous resources will be deployed in real time to deliver a complex and challenging search plan to locate, treat and evacuate casualties from the moor.”

Members of the public may see parts of the training taking place around Haytor and multiple response vehicles travelling to and from the area throughout the day.

Main image: Devon and Cornwall Police car exeterdaily0 on Pixabay