Chopper hooks angler.

AN off-duty cop was plucked to safety by a helicopter yesterday after his fishing trip went wrong.

Angler Edward Cowan, 36, of Holytown, Lanarkshire, spent more than 12 hours trapped on an island at Loudon Pond nature reserve, near Douglas Water.

Last weekend's storms had demolished a bothy regularly used by anglers and it is believed that PC Cowan wandered 20 yards from there on to a high earth banking.

The banking, close to the pond edge, became a miniature island as a burn feeding the pond swelled with rain water.

Emergency services were called in at around 9.30am yesterday as the water level failed to drop and the angling officer was unable to wade back to the shore.

Police and fire rescue services with a dinghy and an ambulance raced to the scene.

But a Sea King from HMS Gannet arrived first and winched the shivering man to an ambulance which took him to Law Hospital.

He was released after a check-up.

Local resident Sandra Boyle, 39, who witnessed the rescue, said: "The waters rise very quickly here and, in a matter of minutes, this poor man was marooned."

PC Cowan's mother told the Sunday Mail from her Blantyre home that her son, who has three children, had been angling for many years and went fishing every New Year's Day.