Updated at 8.12 p.m.

A Bulgarian diver who went missing off Qawra this evening has been found dead.

The grim discovery was made two-and-a-half hours after the absence of the man, aged 59, was noted.

The man had been diving with a group of 10 but did not surface with them.

The alarm was raised at about 5.30 p.m. and the lifeless body was found at 8 p.m. after an intensive search by divers of the AFM and the Civil Protection Department. A patrol boat and a helicopter were also involved in the search while policemen searched the shore.

The body was found by a CPD diver on the seabed at a depth of 30m some 60 metres off Fra Ben point. It was carried onto a dinghy of the AFM's bomb disposal unit and brought to shore.

This was the second fatality involving a diver in three weeks. A 61-year-old German diver died in hospital after finding himself in difficulties at Il-Fossa, Valletta at the end of May.

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