Two men, one a scuba diver and the other a freediver according to reports, died in Puerto del Carmen, the main resort area of Lanzarote in the Canary islands, on Thursday (29 August).
In the early afternoon, a 59-year-old British man reportedly suffered a heart attack during what appears to have been a shore dive.
Members of the public raised the alarm at around 12.30 as the man was pulled unconscious from the water at Playa Chica, a cove popular with tourists and the resort town's southernmost beach..
The Canary Islands Emergency & Security Co-ordination Centre (
CECOES) dispatched first responders, who arrived to find the diver in cardiac arrest. CPR proved unsuccessful, and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Some six hours later, a 41-year-old French freediver died after being struck by an inflatable boat. He had been diving in the El Poril area of Puerto del Carmen's La Tiñosa port.
The freediver was said to have been displaying both a warning flag and an orange buoy at the surface, but the boat reportedly passed overhead while he was still submerged, resulting in what proved to be a fatal collision.
CECOES directed both Civil Guard and police officers to the scene, but they were unable to revive the freediver, who had suffered a cardiac arrest. Both incidents are now under official investigation.
divernet.com
