Robot camera fails to find diver

Dorothea Quarry has been the scene of many fatalities

Failing light has again halted the search for the body of a driver missing in 300ft of water at a north Wales quarry for two days.

On Tuesday, police diving experts lowered a robotic camera into the Dorothea Quarry in the Nantlle Valley, in the search for 57-year-old garage owner Denis Dransfield from Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Relatives of Mr Dransfield - who failed to resurface whils diving on Sunday morning - were at the Dorothea quarry in the Nantlle Valley to see the operation get underway.

The quarry is popular with diving enthusiasts

The extreme depth of the quarry has made it unsuitable for a conventional search, so a sophisticated, remote-controlled device fitted with a camera was brought in.

Despite a day-long search, however, nothing had been found by the time darkness fell on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Dransfield was the fifth diver to die this year in the old slate quarry near Caernarfon.

The quarry has claimed the lives of around 20 divers in the last 10 years and scores more have been rescued.

A senior police officer said on Monday that the diver's body was at a considerable depth.

The quarry is considered one of the best freshwater diving sites in the UK, and keen sportsmen and women travel hundreds of miles to use it.

The search for Mr Dransfield began soon after the alarm was raised at 1130 GMT on Sunday.

'Mixed gas'

It is thought he had set out to reach a depth of 100m using a "mixed gas" diving unit, which lets divers reach greater depths than conventional diving equipment.

Earlier this year, the quarry's owner urged enthusiasts to stay away after the death of Paul Amison, 32, from Staffordshire.

Blocked off

Glyn Small said he had made repeated efforts to prevent thrill-seekers using the area, but all his attempts to block access had been ignored.

Just days after the death in February, he had to ask a group of divers from Cambridgeshire who were at the quarry to leave.

He said the roads into the quarry had been closed off with 30 tonne boulders and huge trenches, but groups had still managed to get into the site.

"I hope the people who are doing this have a conscience because these deaths need not have happened," he said.