BY Independent Online

Two British tourists, a married couple, nearly drowned off Simon's Town on Monday when things went horribly wrong while they were on a scuba diving course.

The vacationing couple, from Wrotham in Kent, were first instructed in a pool and then taken to Long Beach in Simon's Town.

NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the 54-year-old man's goggles apparently filled up with water when he was about six metres under water.

"He started to panic when he could not get his belt off. Soon after that he was found floating in the water unconscious," he said.

The man's wife, whose age is unknown, is also believed to have started panicking and swallowing water. Both were pulled out of the water by two divers from the Simon's Town diving school.

The man received pulmonary resuscitation and began breathing again. Lambinon said Cape Medical Response, the NSRI Simon's Town, the Simon's Town Naval Ambulance, Fire and Rescue and ER24 responded to the call-out and found the man semi-conscious.

His wife was found to have symptoms suggesting she had almost drowned.

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