Diver meets grisly death in harbour accident

A young diver was killed in a gruesome accident in Durban harbour on Tuesday. Troy Allison, the SAPS dive point commander for the search and rescue unit in the Durban area, said Andre Wolmarans, 20, was killed while cleaning the propeller of a fishing trawler.

Wolmarans was polishing the propeller at the ship repair quay 2 in Durban harbour when the propeller was activated.

Allison said a case of culpable homicide was being investigated by police.

Wolmarans, who was from Vereeniging in Gauteng, had been employed for the past 10 months by Subtech Diving and Marine, a company established in 1995 and operating largely in the port of Durban.

The company's head of health, safety and environmental equality, Andre Krugel, said: "Wolmarans was standing on the propeller and conducting a routine polish when the propeller was accidentally engaged from inside the vessel and he was killed."

Allison said the accident had occurred at about 2pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Attempts to find the diver's body had continued well into the evening as police searched a large area of the harbour.

The body had been found at about 9pm.

Police and Subtech Diving and Marine are investigating.