A paraglider died last night after suffering serious injuries when he crashed into a gully on a hillside near Loch Lomond.

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said a rapid response unit, an ambulance and an air ambulance were scrambled soon after 8pm following reports that a paraglider had been injured after encountering problems at Shantron Hill, near Glen Fruin. The air ambulance picked up an accident and emergency consultant from the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley to help with the rescue operation before heading to the scene.

A Royal Navy Sea King helicopter was also summoned from HMS Gannet, at Prestwick, after the ambulance crews en-countered difficulties getting to the fatally-injured man, who had become wedged in a gully on the hillside near the remote hamlet of Shantron, close to Loch Lo-mond golf club.

A spokesman for the RAF Rescue and Co-ordination Centre at Kinloss, in Moray, said that a Royal Navy paramedic was lowered to the casualty to treat him for his injuries.

The A&E consultant from the Royal Alexandra Hospital was able to reach the man and establish that he had suffered spinal and other trauma-related injur-ies. However, he was unable to save him and the man was pronounced dead a short time later.

Police and paramedics remov-ed the man's body from the hill.

A spokesman for Strathclyde police confirmed that the man was fatally injured in the paragliding accident adding: "Inquiries into the incident are continuing."