A 17-year-old British tourist has died while scuba diving with his father in Indonesia.
Gregory Arthur Mills was diving in the waters of Wakatobi national park, a remote Unesco heritage site and luxury diving destination in south Sulawesi, when he encountered difficulties under water.
Accompanied by his father Christopher John Mills, and a dive master from the Wakatobi dive resort, Mills reportedly panicked during the dive, pulling his regulator out his mouth at nine meters underwater.
After removing his breathing apparatus, the teenager allegedly resisted help and was declared dead upon arrival at the medical treatment room at the resort in Tomia.
The Maya Bay dive site where 17-year-old Mills and his father were diving on the weekend is a shallow reef dive with minimal current and is recommended for beginner divers.
There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.
South-east Sulawesi police spokesperson, Ajun Kombes Sunato, said Mills had swallowed mouthfuls of seawater, while an autopsy later showed seawater on his lungs, and no signs of violence, reported local news website Tempo.com.
A spokesperson for the British embassy in the capital in Jakarta confirmed the death, and said the embassy was providing consular support to the Mills family.
Wakatobi, an acronym for the four main islands of Wangi-Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, and Binongko, is part of the Besi archipelago, an area known for its pristine coral reefs and marine life.
The national park covers 3.4 million acres of islands and waters and was designated as a protected area by UNESCO in 2012.
There have been several incidences of diving related deaths in Indonesia this year.
This April a Singaporean woman was found dead after she went missing on a dive trip off the island of Flores, while earlier that month a Russian national was mauled to death by a saltwater crocodile while snorkeling in Raja Ampat, West Papua.
