Divers on training exercise find body near Doolin

Gardaí­ are attempting to identity a body recovered from the sea off Co Clare yesterday. A group of divers who had been training near Doolin made the discovery south of Doolin at about 3pm.

Members of the Burren Sub Aqua group had been on a training exercise near the Cliffs of Moher with a diver from the Limerick Sub Aqua Club.

The area where the body was found was marked while the divers returned to the surface and raised the alarm. Gardaí­ and the Irish Coast Guard were alerted.

Two divers undertook another dive to bring the body to the surface. It was transferred to the Doolin Coast Guard rescue boat and taken back to its station. A doctor formally pronounced death before the body was removed to University Hospital Limerick.

It is expected a postmortem will be carried out today.

Also yesterday, coast guard volunteers assisted in locating a man in his 60s feared to have suffered a stroke or heart attack on the coastal path at the top of Cliffs of Moher.

The man was brought to the cliffs visitor centre from where he was flown to hospital in the Irish Coast Guard helicopter.