Coastguard and lifeboat crews have recovered a man’s body from the water near a Scottish island after it was spotted by staff aboard a passing ferry.
Workers aboard the MV Isle of Mull alerted emergency services after seeing an object in the water near the island of Barra.
The ferry was unable to stop because of weather conditions, but raised the alarm to emergency crews ashore, the Press and Journal reports.
The ferry was crossing from Lochboisdale to Oban at the when the discovery was made.
A man's body was then recovered from the water.
Police said that the death is being treated as "unexplained", and that enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.
READ MORE:
- Ferguson Marine shipyard reaches second stage of £175m small ferry bid
- Scotgov commits millions to support Orkney ferry fleet
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 2.35pm on Thursday, 24 October, we received a report of a body in the water near the Isle of Barra.
“Emergency services attended and the body of a man has been recovered.
“The death is being treated as unexplained and enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here