A BRITISH man has drowned while scuba diving off the coast of Lanzarote.
Emergency responders raced to pull the tourist, 59, from the water at the popular Playa Chica beach but were unable to revive him.
AlamyA British man has drowned in Lanzarote[/caption]
The man was holidaying in the Puerto del Carmen resort when he went into cardiac arrest on Thursday.
The alarm was raised just after 12.30pm at the popular beach, famed for its amazing snorkelling.
A spokesman for a regional government-run emergency response centre said overnight: “A 59-year-old scuba diver has died following an incident at Playa Chica in the municipality of Tias.
“We started receiving calls just after 12.30pm yesterday.
“The callers said a scuba diver who was unconscious and needed emergency medical assistance had been pulled from the water.
“Emergency responders discovered he was in cardiac arrest when they arrived at the scene and practiced CPR on him without obtaining positive results.
“He was pronounced dead at the scene. Local police and firefighters were also mobilised.”
In February last year a 63-year-old British woman scuba diver died off the coast of Tenerife.
The tragedy occurred off a beach in Fasnia, eastern Tenerife.
And in November 2022 a British diver also died on Lanzarote.
The 60-year-old is said to have suffered a cardiac arrest on Playa Flamingo in the south of the island.
A lifeguard is understood to have tried to assist the unnamed Brit but was unable to save his life.
Enrique Espinosa, manager of the Security and Emergency Consortium of Lanzarote, said at the time: “He had all the correct permits to be able to dive but diving is a high-risk sport and anything that goes wrong can be fatal.
“He went into cardiac arrest after arriving and attempts to revive him proved unsuccessful.”
Police sources said the British man had “health issues.”
In February 2019 a British man died during a dive off the coast of Tenerife where he had been celebrating his 32nd wedding anniversary with wife Lesley.
Andrew Littler, from Coalville, Leicester, was pronounced dead after the alarm was raised when he went into cardiac arrest following unsuccessful attempts to revive him on a pier in the quiet holiday resort of Abades.