A diver has died in the flooded Ojamo lime-mine, Finland’s most popular cave-diving site.
The mine is located in Lohja, 40 miles west of Finland’s capital Helsinki. According to a YLE News report, the middle-aged diver was recovered from a tunnel close to the mine exit by other divers, and unsuccessful attempts made to resuscitate him by the divers and emergency services when they arrived 15 minutes later.
Police were investigating the cause of the incident.
Ojamo is one of a number of flooded mines in Finland suitable for scuba-diving, and there are established procedures for diving there. Jukka Eklund of the rescue team told the news service that divers understood the risks in diving the mine, especially in winter when there was ice cover at the surface, but preferred it to diving in the Gulf of Finland because the water was clear and its temperature stayed at around 4°C year-round.
The Ojamo quarry was abandoned in 1965 after 40 years of productivity, leaving a network of tunnels several kilometres long beneath it.
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22-Jan-17
