AN investigation is under way after a 55-year-old student drowned in a diving accident at Capernwray quarry lake on Sunday afternoon.

Julie Bedford died after she and a fellow student diver got into difficulties when they were separated from their diving team and instructor.

The divorcee from Crosby near Merseyside was pulled to the bank and given emergency First Aid by doctors but was later pronounced dead.

Her team mate Sean Curran, 27, from Didsbury was airlifted to the Royal Preston Hospital with a suspected punctured lung. But he has since been released from hospital.

Police say the two divers had swum very deep when they got separated from their instructor and the rest of the team because of poor visibility in the lake at the Capernwray Diving Centre at Over Kellet.

PC Simon Street, of Carnforth Police station, said visibility was down to about a metre.

He said: "The two divers came to the surface and that is when something went wrong. Both surfaced but she has gone back under water and drowned."

The two divers were part of a 8 man team of students from all over the North West.

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