A man has died and a 12-year-old girl is being treated in hospital after a scuba diving accident off the coast of Cornwall.
An air ambulance and coastguard helicopter were scrambled to the hamlet of East Portholland near St Austell on the south coast on Tuesday but the man and girl were pulled from the sea by members of the public.
The man was declared dead at the scene while the girl was taken to Derriford hospital in Plymouth. Her condition was not thought to be serious.
Devon and Cornwall police are investigating the accident and have not yet named the two people, who are members of the same family.
Supt Ian Drummond Smith said: “The family involved were from outside the area and are believed to have been holidaying in Cornwall. This appears to be a tragic scuba diving accident, and our thoughts are with the man’s relatives and friends at this time.”
The tragedy is the latest in a series of seaside deaths this summer. Five young men died at Camber Sands in East Sussex last week, while Londoners Rudy Bruynius and his two-year-old daughter Mckayla Bruynius were killed after being swept off rocks and into the sea at Newquay in north Cornwall this month.
In a statement on the latest Cornish death, the force said: “Police were notified at 5.12pm on Tuesday 30 August that a 45-year-old man had been retrieved from the sea by members of the public at East Portholland along with a 12-year-old girl.”
