At 21.27hrs this evening Greater Manchester Police paged the team to provide assistance with the recovery of a 35 year old deceased male from dense woodland in the Atherton Wood area of Howe Bridge, Leigh.

At the time of call the team was put on standby at our Ladybridge Hall base / HQ whilst our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE established the exact location of the GMP RVP and the nature of what we were being requested to do.

By 21.49hrs it was decided to locate the team in the vicinity of Howe Bridge Leisure Centre whislt our Team Leader and a team member who lives nearby, determined the best access points in liaison with GMP Officers involved.

The team met in the area of Long Causeway off Old Mill Lane, Leigh, to access Atherton Wood, with the body of the man being stretcher evacuated back to the GMP RVP just after 23.00hrs to await the arrival of the undertakers vehicle.

We understand that this man had been the subject of an earlier GMP search operation, which did not involve the team, to determine his whereabouts.

In total 18x team members responded to this incident, all returning home just after midnight on Sunday 9th August. At the time of our involvement a small number of GMP Divisional Officers and GMP Traffic were also present.

The team is frequently requested to recover bodies from difficult to access or ’remote’ locations and carries appropriate equipment to undertake such taskings.