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Survival expert Ray Mears has spoken for the first time about his role in the 2010 hunt for killer Raoul Moat.

The TV presenter used his tracking skills to lead police officers to the armed fugitive who was hiding out in woodland near Rothbury in Northumberland.

At one point Ray, 49, said he was within 20ft of the gunman after tracking him for eight hours.

Moat, 37, had been on the run for a week in July 2010 after shooting his former partner Samantha Stobbart, killing her new boyfriend Chris Brown and blinding PC David Rathband by shooting him in the face.

(Image: PA)

When Ray arrived in Rothbury he described the scene – with specialist police snipers, helicopters circling overhead and an RAF Tornado GR4 jet doing reconnaissance sorties – as like something “out of a Hollywood film set”.

He said: “It was all a bit surreal. This is the first time I’ve talked about it and it’s because I feel there has been sufficient water under the bridge.”

Ray said he had not wanted his involvement to be reported and it is only now, with his autobiography set to be released on September 12, that he feels he can speak out.

He told local paper the Gloucestershire Echo: “My concern was that people would think it was a publicity stunt.

“A lot of people claimed for some reason to have been there but I know, because I was there, that they were not. I have experience of tracking for 40 years.

"I can’t imagine there would be that many people in the country who would have been in a position to help the police find someone who had gone into hiding.

"It was a real-life hunt; within my skill set but outside of my comfort zone.”

Moat was finally found on July 10 and after a six-hour stand-off with armed officers, shot himself dead.

PC Rathband hanged himself 19 months after Moat’s attack.

A source on the manhunt said: “At the time, Ray Mears was keen to keep a low profile and did not want anyone to know he was involved.

"He was very modest about it and did not want any publicity.”

Today Ray was working in Canada and unavailable for comment.

CSI details with touch of Sherlock: By Paul Kirtley, UK bushcraft expert

Tracking isn’t like it is done in the movies.

It’s not all about having some sort of supernatural ability because you have been raised by wolves.

It involves a kind of CSI-type close observation, combined with the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes.

To track someone in this country, you have to be familiar with the environment so that you can identify what has changed.

Broken twigs or bent blades of grass indicate something has been disturbed.

If someone walks through a patch of leaves – normally dry and light on top and damp and dark lower down – you won’t see footprints but a dark trail where the leaves have been overturned.

You also need to able to predict their behaviour, and ask ‘what would you do in their shoes?’.