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US cruise passenger drowns in Belize during snorkeling trip
Monday, 08 Jan, 2016
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An American cruise passenger has died while snorkeling in Belize, the second such snorkeling death in the last month.
Belize Tourism Police are investigating the incident, with many tourism industry leaders concerned over the number of deaths that have occurred in the water involving elderly tourists.
The victim was named as 67 year old Janice Mittelstadt from South Dakota who had arrived earlier on a Princess Cruises ship.
She was found unresponsive in the water near Sargeant’s Caye.
"We have been seeing that for some time now we are having a few deaths occurring in the sea, especially with diving and snorkeling. But we have also seen that these persons who are dying are people who are advanced in age. So we have decided to have some kind of discussion to see how best we can curb this situation," said Gualberto Garcia, commanding officer of the Tourism Police.
Garcia said a post mortem would be carried out to see if Mittelstadt had an existing medical condition which may have been a contributing factor.
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