Search for former rescue team man

Teams were helped by a helicopter from HMS Gannet

A full-scale search has been launched for a former mountain rescue team member who failed to return from a climb on Ben Finlay, near Glencoe.

Royal Air Force personnel who were on winter exercises in the area have joined the operation.

A Royal Navy helicopter and the Glencoe and Strathclyde Police Mountain Rescue Teams are also involved in the search.

A police spokesperson said the 62-year-old, from Fort William, was very experienced and well-equipped.

The man had told his family he was going to climb around the Loch Creran area on Saturday.

The search was launched when he failed to return home that evening.

A Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter was scrambled from HMS Gannet at Prestwick on Sunday morning.

Steep ascent

The search followed a number of incidents on Scotland's mountains over the weekend.

Rescue teams said two men were taken to hospital in Inverness after being swept several hundred feet down a mountain by an avalanche.

The climbers had been starting a steep ascent of Coire an Lochan in the Cairngorms on Saturday.

Other climbers helped to dig them out and police said their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

Two other men were rescued on Friday night after becoming stuck on the slopes of Ben Nevis.

They contacted the emergency services by mobile phone after the rope they were using to abseil became stuck.