

Gardaí are investigating the discovery of a body in the sea off Co Clare this afternoon.

Members of the Burren Sub Aqua Club, accompanied by a diver from Limerick Sub Aqua Club, had been on exercise near the Cliffs of Moher at around 3.00pm.

During one of their dives, two members of the Clare based Burren club made the discovery in about 25m of water.

The area where the body was found was marked while the divers returned to the surface and raise the alarm. Gardaí and the Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard were alerted.

Two divers, one from each of the clubs, undertook another dive to recover the body to the surface.

The remains were transferred to a Coast Guard rescue boat and taken back to Doolin station. The body was later removed to University Hospital Limerick where a postmortem examination is expected to be carried out.

The body is believed to be that of a woman and may have been in the water some time.

Gardaí are investigating the discovery and are attempting to establish an identity for the person.

Meanwhile, as efforts to recover the body were continuing, Coast Guard volunteers were alerted to an emergency on the coastal path at the top of Cliffs of Moher.

Coast Guard personnel were requested to assist in locating a man in his 60’s feared to have suffered a stroke or heart attack.

Volunteers raced to the scene while an ambulance was also alerted. Coast Guard personnel were requested to assist as the location of the incident, about 300m south of the main viewing platform, is not accessible by vehicles.

The casualty was located and recovered to the visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher from where he was airlifted to hospital by the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115.