At 18:35 this evening, the team was paged by NWAS (GMA) to urgently attend an incident in the Egerton area.

A full emergency response was paged to what was initially thought to be a seriously injured person within Egerton (Cox Green) Quarry, Cox Green Road, Egerton.

23 team members responded in 4 team vehicles, sadly learning en-route that the person involved was deceased and that our response was now going to be a body recovery operation.

Meeting the responding NWAS resources at the northern part of Cox Green Road, team members were initially put on hold to liaise with responding GMP officers. Our first team member had arrived on scene at 19:00, closely followed by our Team Leader and our first responding team vehicle at 19:07.

Our Team Leader and Deputy Leader were despatched to liaise with GMP officers at a cordon being arranged in the quarry floor as full forensic protocols were beginning to be put into place.

A full Police investigation then swung into action as darkness fell and the night wore on, including detectives and forensic officers, with divisional Police resources in support.

Throughout the investigation phase, the team provided area lighting and personal lighting for the Police, route marking using chemical light sticks, escorts to the various Police resources operating on the steep slippery wet terrain of the quarry, and full catering support to all the GMP and Bolton MRT resources deployed.

Just after midnight the body of the 23 year old local man involved was removed from the quarry floor at the base of a steep drop by a small party of Bolton MRT members working alongside forensic and CID officers.

This small stretcher party then handed over the operation to a larger party of Bolton MRT members who evacuated the deceased out of the steep confines of the quarry to the GMP roadside RVP.

The operation concluded on scene at 01:00 with the departure of all team vehicles with our TL remaining on scene to further liaise with GMP up to 01:15.

With the rescue and recovery equipment put away, all members were back home by the incident conclusion by 01:45 (NWAS Ambulance resources deployed to this incident consisted of an Emergency Ambulance, a Rapid Response Vehicle, and a vehicle crewed by the Area Operational Duty Manager).

All the team members involved in this tragic incident and recovery operation extend their condolences to the family of the young 23 year old man involved in this terrible accident.