A British holidaymaker drowned during a diving trip off Mauritius on Christmas Eve, local media has reported.
The 77-year-old man lost his life near a peninsula known as ‘Devil’s Point’ on the island’s east coast.
The man, who has not been named, was reportedly taking part in a catamaran diving tour with other holidaymakers on December 24.
He and several other tourists entered the water to snorkel at around 11.45am, according to reports, with all the members of the tour except him returning to the boat at around 12.10pm.
The group was preparing to leave the area when the boat’s skipper and crew noticed the man was missing.
They alerted the police and coastguard who immediately launched a search operation.
After more than an hour of scouring the area, the authorities located the man’s body around 50 meters from the boat.
The man was pulled out of the water and first aid was administered, but he could not be saved.
The 77-year-old man lost his life near a peninsula known as ‘Devil’s Point’ on the island’s east coast
He was declared dead at the scene and his body was taken to a nearby hospital morgue, where it has undergone an autopsy to confirm his cause of death.
The police medical examiner determined he had drowned and his body was then returned to his family to be repatriated, Mauritian media reports.
It is the latest in a series of tragedies involving British tourists in the popular holiday destination this year.
In April, a 55-year-old Briton drowned during his first swim in the sea after arriving on the island.
The man, who was reportedly staying in the Henessy Park Hotel in Ebène on the west coast, went to the nearby Flic en Flac lagoon for a dip and got into difficulty in the water, local media reported at the time.
The man was reportedly pulled out of the water by a French national on a boat, but efforts to revive him failed and he was taken to a local hospital, where he was declared dead.
The sea reportedly was rough and there were heavy swells when the man drowned, with at least three others also losing their lives that day.
A month earlier, a British father tragically lost his life while trying to save his 15-year-old son during a huge storm.
The 49-year-old man had entered the water to help his teenage son, who was swept out to sea by large waves in the Pomponette lagoon on the south coast of the island, according to local media reports.
But during the rescue the man got into difficulty himself and by the time lifeguards reached the 15-year-old boy shortly after 10.15am on March 23, his father had disappeared beneath the waves.
While his son was rescued successfully, the search for the man lasted for several days and was eventually abandoned.
The man, his partner and his son had arrived on Mauritius on Friday, March 22, and were due to leave about a week later, just before Easter Sunday, on March 30.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
