This story is developing. Updates will be posted when more information is received.
A 29-year old British woman has drowned in front of her boyfriend during a wreck dive off the coast of Albania.
The woman, identified as Rebecca Gannon, was diving with her boyfriend and a group of other divers at shallow wreck site off the coast of Saranda on Monday afternoon when she reportedly ‘got into difficulty’ after spending approximately 10 minutes in the water.
Instructor Saimir Kushova, 45, entered the water and attempted to save Ms Gannon by surfacing her, removing her from the water and performing CPR. Mr Kushova has since been arrested ‘on suspicion of violating work health and safety rules and illegally employing a dive instructor who was not fully qualified,’ although no details as yet have emerged as to whether or not the divers were participating in a fun dive or a training course.
Both Ms Gannon and her boyfriend have been reported as PADI Open Water certified divers. The group were reportedly diving the wreck of the SS Probitas a 115m-long Italian cargo ship sunk inside the Bay of Saranda during the Second World World War. Probitas lies in a maximum depth of 18m, with the top of the wreck reaching to just 3m below the surface.
Gerta Bronzi, co-owner of the dive operator Spiranca Diving, told reporters: ‘We don’t know what happened, maybe she had a health issue. We’re waiting for the autopsy; we’re all very shocked.’
‘The British woman who died was here with her boyfriend and the both had PADI open water certificates so they were both fully qualified to dive with us,’ Bronzi continued. ‘She had been in the water for ten minutes and then she got into difficulty, there had been an issue with a regulator before but it was changed and was working fine.’
“She was diving on a shipwreck but was only at a depth of seven or eight metres so it was not a very challenging dive. She came to the surface but then went down. ‘The next thing we knew Saimir had spotted she was in trouble and dived in to try and rescue her.
‘Saimir did all he could he brought her to the surface and then he did CPR on her as the boat went back to the shore where the paramedics were waiting.
An FCDO spokesperson said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Albania and are in contact with the local authorities.’
