Twenty divers yesterday collected almost one tonne of rubbish dumped at sea off Marsamxett Harbour in Valletta.

Three diving associations – Maltaqua, Subway Dive Centre and Scubaworks Malta – joined forces to clean up the seabed to make the area safer for bathers and divers.

The two-hour clean-up yielded plastic deck chairs, tin cans, car tyres and ladders which had been dumped at sea.

During the clean-up, a diving instructor who was giving a lesson in the bay thanked the divers for clearing up their “offices”.

The rubbish filled a large, metal skip usually used for construction purposes.

Although almost a tonne of ­rubbish was brought up, divers on site said a lot more remained, including rusting railings, beer cans, plastic armchairs and ­bottles.