The mission to rescue a father-of-two who went missing after falling through an ice-covered loch on Easter Monday has turned into a recovery operation, police have said.

Specialist police divers have joined the search for the unnamed man, who had been on a day out at Dow Loch, near Cleish in Perthshire, before he plunged into it.

It is understood the 47-year-old, who was hanging on to the ice, shouted to his wife and teenage daughters to stay away as they tried to reach him. The family had spent the day walking and sledging before the accident.

Specialist water rescue teams were employed involving 31 firefighters from four stations and two RAF Sea King helicopters.

Rescue helicopters battled to break the ice on the surface of the loch using the downdraft of their rotor blades. Firefighters also battled in sub-zero temperatures to break the ice so they could deploy sleds and rescue boats onto the loch. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said crews had been working in very cold conditions for several hours.

A spokesman said firefighters had to travel to the area on foot as it is a considerable distance from the road, climbing a 150ft ridge to gain access to the loch.

Sergeant Ian Shepherd, from the Tayside division of the national force who is co-ordinating the search effort, admitted there is now "no hope" of finding the missing man alive. He said: "I think it moved yesterday from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.

"According to the witnesses on scene, he had fallen through the ice but hadn't disappeared under it and had been able to hang on to the ice sheet. We think he did this for about 20 minutes but unfortunately by the time we arrived there was nobody visible.

"The family were really distraught.

"The chances of survival would have been absolutely nil so we have moved from a rescue to a recovery."

He said the man had fallen into the water when he and his wife and two teenage daughters ventured out on to the ice-covered surface of the small loch after sledging on a nearby hillside. He added: "My understanding is the family had been sledging. They had then ventured out on to the loch. It is a small loch right on the top of the Cleish Hills – little more than a large pool of stagnant water. It had frozen over.

"They had been walking on the loch and the father wandered further out than anybody else and had fallen through the thinner ice as he got toward the middle of the loch."

Sgt Shepherd continued: "The family had done what they could to reach him, but he had shouted to them to get off the ice. The family are absolutely distraught.

"One of the two young teenage daughters then frantically searched for a location to get a signal for her mobile phone to summon the emergency services."

Sgt Shepherd said it should serve as a warning of the dangers of venturing out on to icy surfaces.