Five Japanese scuba divers have been found alive clinging to a coral reef in rough waters off the Indonesian resort island of Bali, three days after they went missing, officials said.
Fishermen spotted the divers, among seven women who went missing off Nusa Lembongan on Friday, some 20 kilometres from where they set off for a diving expedition but could not rescue them because the waves were too high.
One of them was later rescued by a helicopter, which also dropped food to the stranded divers.
The four others were being picked up by a rescue boat.
The dive boat skipper said he was following the divers for about 20 minutes before a sudden downpour made the water cloudy, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
He moved his 10-metre boat a few hundred metres away, where the divers were expected to resurface at an agreed time, the report said.
The skipper said he searched for them for an hour before reporting the incident.
However, other reports claim the skipper left the group of divers to refuel his boat.
The search for the remaining two divers continues.
