The search for Paul Swain, an English tourist who disappeared on Monday while diving in Xatt l-Aħmar in Gozo, was called off yesterday.

The news comes as another body was found off Xorb l-Għaġin in Birżebbuġa. But given the state of the body, which is badly-decomposed, it is being excluded that it could be the diver in question.

The 49-year-old Englishman was diving with two other foreigners on the wreck of what was once a Gozo Channel ferry off Xatt l-Aħmar.

The accompanying divers surfaced and rushed ashore to ask a hunter in the area for help when their colleague disappeared.

Divers from the Armed Forces and the Civil Protection Department together with volunteers scoured the waters where he was last seen while a plane and a helicopter kept a look-out from above. Alas, there was no sign of the diver.

A spokesman for the AFM said the other two divers were being interviewed in order to obtain as much information as possible.

The missing diver's brother, Brett, in a comment to timesofmalta.com, expressed his gratitude to the divers involved in the search. "My family and I cannot express enough gratitude for the bravery and dedication of all concerned in their attempts to find Paul," Mr Swain said.