A BODY of a man believed to be missing Leyland diver Mark Hampton was recovered from England's deepest lake.

Mr Hampton, a student from Kingswood Road, was diving in Wastwater on Friday when his group got into difficulties.

He was with a team of six divers from Lancaster and Morecambe College on an expedition in the lake at the foot of Scafell in Cumbria.

Four of the divers escaped the water uninjured but a fifth was taken to the decompression chamber at BNFL Sellafield. Despite an extensive rescue operation Mr Hampton was not found on Friday.

Police divers from the Lancashire Underwater Search Team were forced to break off on Sunday due to the treacherous weather conditions.

Sgt Bill Pearce, who was leading the operation, said: "It seems his friends tried to assist him but there was a lot of sediment stirring up and they lost contact with him.

"We searched on Sunday in atrocious conditions - very heavy blizzards - it was very hazardous and we had to call it off." A body was discovered on Tuesday. The coroner has been informed. The dead man had not been officially identified as we went to press.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.