Children rescued from mountains
Published: October 4, 2004
A group of schoolchildren is recovering after being rescued from the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland.
The 33 teenagers and a teacher got into trouble at about 1630 BST on Sunday while they were climbing Eagle Mountain.
Members of the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team carried out a rescue operation and the group was escorted from the mountain just before it got dark.
Four teenagers were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia, while 12 others were treated for minor symptoms.
The group had been on a trip from Drogheda in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland.
On Monday, the principal of the school at the centre of the rescue said lessons “would have to be learned from the incident”.
Principal Terry Mahon from Saint Oliver’s Community College in Drogheda said there probably should have been more teachers on the trip.
The Mourne Mountain Rescue team had been training in the area when the alarm was raised.
Spokesman David Goddard said if the weather had been worse the group could have died.
“They were very, very badly equipped,” he said. “We just managed to get them off before it got dark. Once it would get dark it would take twice as long to get them off.
“We were expecting - according to weather forecasts - gales and storms. Fortunately it didn’t materialise, otherwise we would have been talking in terms of deaths.”
All the children were discharged from hospital by midnight on Sunday.
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