Two divers have died and a third is in critical condition after they simultaneously lost consciousness while cleaning barnacles from a ship moored in Busan New Port in Changwon, South Korea.
According to the South Korean Coast Guard, the three divers were pulled from the water by emergency response teams at around 11.45 am on Sunday, 20 July.
The three men, all South Korean nationals in their 30s, received CPR on site before being transferred to a nearby hospital. Two of the men were subsequently pronounced dead by medics while the third remains in intensive care.
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According to the Coast Guard, the divers, who worked for a specialist ship-cleaning company, were deployed at 8.12 am to remove barnacles from the stern of a 50,000-ton container ship moored in the port.
The team was using surface-supplied diving equipment when the incident occurred, leading to speculation that there must have been a fault with the supply, to which all three men succumbed together.
The South Korean Coast Guard has mounted an investigation, seeking witnesses and inspecting CCTV footage from the port to determine if safety rules had been violated.
