UPDATE: The diver has been identified as 66-year-old Dennis Reid, formerly a police inspector in Belfast who moved to Cyprus in 2008 and ran a dive school called Scuba Den.
The body of a diver missing on the Zenobia shipwreck in Cyprus since Thursday morning has been found and recovered from inside the enormous vessel.
A large-scale air and sea operation was immediately launched by Larnaca Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) and Cyprus Marine Police and, according to reports, military divers searching the wreck for the missing man located his body this morning (Friday 27 October). Some reports stated he was in an area of the ship that is not often visited, others specified the engine room of the huge ship.
Details about the incident are still scarce. Some reports said it was believed the victim was a 66-year-old British instructor, others said he was Irish. Some stated he was guiding a couple, who ascended before him without any issues, while others reported that he had been diving with a buddy, who raised the alarm after reaching the surface without him.
The Zenobia is a popular dive site in Cyprus, with thousands of divers exploring the massive 172-metre-long Ro-Ro ferry, which has been on the bottom – in depths ranging from 19m-42m – since 1980.
Photo credit: Stuart Philpott
