ANDREW RICE FOUND DEAD IN FRENCH CAVE SYSTEM AFTER SEARCH

French authorities have identified a British cave diver who died after failing to resurface from an underwater cave system in southern France as Andrew Rice, from Stroud, Gloucestershire. Rice entered the Saint-Sauveur resurgence in Calès at around 3.30pm on 18 September alongside two other divers, both of whom later returned safely to the main group. When he had not emerged by around 8pm, an alarm was raised and a search operation began. The operation involved specialist cave divers, firefighters, gendarmes and members of a French cave-rescue organisation. His body was eventually located on 20 September, deep inside the cavern system at a depth of around 270ft.

The mayor of Calès, Jean-François Poncelet, said on Saturday that there remained hope Rice might have found an air chamber roughly 260ft below the surface and taken refuge there. Divers who reached and searched the chamber that day found no sign of him. He was later found caught in a guideline used by divers to navigate the underwater cave network. The recovery operation was made more difficult after disturbed clay significantly reduced visibility in the water. Authorities are investigating the death, and the cause has not yet been established.

Rice had been documenting his trip on Facebook, sharing videos of dives undertaken over the preceding week. In a post on 9 September, he wrote that he was returning to "continue unfinished business" and hoped to complete his 1,000th dive. His final update, posted early on the Friday morning before his death, described a "shakedown" dive to test a needle valve added to his equipment some months earlier, and said he felt confident ahead of what he called "the Big one" — his 1,000th dive. Fellow divers and friends have paid tribute to him online, with one writing that they were "totally gutted" and would never forget him.