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Teenage girl swept away by river Teenage girl swept away by river
(about 6 hours later)
A teenage girl is in a serious condition in hospital after being swept away by a river on Dartmoor, Devon.A teenage girl is in a serious condition in hospital after being swept away by a river on Dartmoor, Devon.
The girl was in a party of 10 youngsters when she fell into the river at Walla Brook near Watern Tor. The girl, whose friends raised the alarm by mobile phone after losing sight of her at Walla Brook near Watern Tor, was in a party of 10 young people.
The alarm was raised after her friends lost sight of her. Searches began and she was located by a rescue helicopter and airlifted to Derriford Hospital. Police said the teenagers were among 85 groups of pupils training for the annual Ten Tors Expedition event.
None of the rest of the group, all in their early teens, were thought to be injured, police said. In a separate incident, a man and a woman were killed when they were washed off a Cornwall harbour wall.
Cursory checks The couple were walking along the pier at Mullion Cove when a wave washed them into the sea in gale force winds.
Weather conditions on the moor were poor, as it had been raining for much of Saturday night and Sunday. An RNLI lifeboat and Royal Navy rescue helicopter were dispatched to recover them, but the pair were pronounced dead at Treliske hospital.
The alarm was raised by one of the group on a mobile phone at about 1405 GMT on Sunday. Major operation
The missing girl was located in about 20 minutes by the rescue helicopter. In the incident on Dartmoor, two other teams of young people also had to be rescued, a number of whom were suffering from hypothermia, police said.
The remaining nine members of the group were airlifted from the moor by helicopter or walked off by rescue services and taken to Okehampton for cursory checks. Another teenager suffered leg injuries.
Police said that all of the members of the group, who are all thought to be from Devon, had been accounted for and were safely off the moor. Supt Barry Marsden said it had been a major operation to rescue the teenagers from the moor in deteriorating weather.
The police, Dartmoor rescue services and the Royal Naval Air Service were involved, he said.
The alarm was raised by the first group at about 1405 GMT on Sunday.
The girl who had fallen in the river was located within about 20 minutes by a rescue helicopter and airlifted to Derriford hospital, where she was resuscitated but is described as "very poorly".
The subsequent two groups were also rescued by helicopter - members from all three teams were taken to Okehampton Battle Camp for checks, then driven by ambulance to hospital.
Swollen rivers
Duty Inspector Julie Challoner said: "The Ten Tors is something they do every year, go up and down 10 big groups of rock called tors."
"It's a really big tradition in Devon across Dartmoor."
It was not known if any teachers or trainers were with the children at the time.
Weather conditions in the area were poor, with heavy rain over a 12-hour period that had swollen rivers.
The helicopter scrambled to rescue the teenager was the same one which later recovered the bodies of the man and woman from the sea at Mullion Cove.
In that incident, the alarm was raised to coastguards shortly after 1700 GMT.