AN investigation has been launched into the death of a man at the National Diving and Activity Centre (NDAC) last Thursday (April 11).

It is at least the seventh diving tragedy at the water-filled former quarry site since the 249ft deep facility opened in 2003.

In the latest incident, a 52-year-old man from Great Yarmouth was pulled from the water around 5.20pm, but emergency services pronounced him dead at the scene.

A Gloucestershire Police spokesperson said: “We are sad to report that a 52-year-old man from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, lost his life on Thursday while diving at the National Diving Centre, Dayhouse Quarry, Tidenham, Chepstow.

“An initial investigation has commenced with the police and the Health and Safety Executive on behalf of the coroner.

“Our thoughts are with the man’s family and friends following this tragic incident.”

The former Dayhouse Quarry is the UK’s deepest inland dive site and is popular with technical and free divers.

It has sunken planes, helicopters, buses, armoured vehicles and a cruiser on the bed of the quarry, and posted on the morning of the latest tragedy that it had lowered its “new scuba attraction” – ‘The Hyperbaric Chamber’ – into place.

The NDAC has not commented on the latest fatality, which comes a year after the death of Lance Corporal George Partridge during a military-run scuba course.

The wife of the 27-year-old soldier, who was based with 26 Engineer Regiment in Wiltshire, was expecting their first child at the time of his death on March 26, 2018.

His family have told the Gloucestershire Coroner “systematic failures” led to the tragedy, and the course should have had “sufficient controls” in place.

County coroner Katy Skerrett ruled last September the inquest would be held before a jury, with a pre-inquest hearing set for next month.

His death came six months after 28-year-old trucker Wlodzimierz Jurasz, from Upminster, died from the bends at the NDAC.An inquest in Gloucester in February 2018 heard that Mr Jurasz had dived solo 100ft deeper than he was qualified to, and ascended in minutes when he should have taken more than an hour.In 2004, friends Janine Davison-Evans, 27, from Stockton-on-Tees, and her boyfriend Hank Austin, 25, from Ascot, died in a Good Friday incident after staff noticed their vehicle was still parked in the car park at closing time. The inquest heard they were found on a ledge 65m under the water after diving with cylinders that were only suitable for shallower depths.Just six weeks later, a 46-year-old man from Middlesex died in an accident at the lake, while diving with another man, who had to be treated in a decompression chamber, and a woman. In November 2014, Mary Restell, 54, from Tavistock in Devon died when she dived to 60m with her husband Roy using ‘sub-standard breathing equipment’.