LESS than 24 hours after a tragic drowning in Paisley, a gathering of emergency services delivered a potentially life-saving message.

A Scottish Fire and Rescue (SFRS) crew, police officers from Cumnock police office, a mountain and sea rescue volunteer as well as East Ayrshire’s CCTV specialist met at Loch Doon.

It was a picture-postcard scene but, underneath the mirror-glass surface, danger lurks and, while the guys are geared up for it, they would rather not be dragging another dead body to the shore.

SFRS crew manager, David Wilson, said: “We have been back and forward to a few incidents — people jumping into water without being aware of the consequences.

“They will not know the depth of the water or the currents, things like that, so it is vitally important that everyone in our communities are made aware of the dangers.

“Today’s event is all about partners coming together and trying to get the message out there — especially in this nice weather.

“It’s about trying to educate people — water will be very cold, even when the weather is warm — and when your body hits it, you are taking that sudden deep breath in, swallow water right away and you’re in trouble.”

Steven Hearton, countryside ranger at Loch Doon is one of 15 members of the Galloway Mountain Rescue team trained in swift water rescue.

He added: “We are trained to go out on a boat in an incident of someone falling into water and work closely with SFRS and the police — on occasion, sadly, it has been a dead body we bring in.”