A MOUNTAIN rescue team spent hours combing the Dyfi forest for a missing rally spectator over the weekend - only to discover he had taken a taxi home.

On Saturday afternoon, 14 November, call handlers from Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team were told that a 41-year-old man was missing in the Dyfi forest following the Wales Rally GB stage earlier in the day.

The man, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, was attending the rally with a group of friends.

He had last been seen by the other members of his party at 7am as they made their way to spectator viewing positions within the forest, and the plan was to regroup at the car at 1pm.

However the missing man failed to make the rendez-vous and could not be raised by phone.

In response, his friends started searching the woodland themselves, and ultimately the police were informed.

With very difficult weather conditions and darkness fallen, assistance was soon sought from the Aberdyfi team.

Rescue volunteers rendezvoused at Aberangell on the edge of the forest and, with air support ruled out by the bad weather, were confronted by a large search area with only “scant and sometimes conflicting information” about the missing man to work on.

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