Cause of death unclear but 46-year-old is second diver to die in effort to retrieve bodies from the Sewol, which sank last month

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A diver has died during efforts to cut a new access hole into a submerged ferry that sank last month with the loss of about 300 lives, the South Korean coastguard said.

The 46-year-old diver, identified only as Kim, was pulled on Friday from the water unconscious and bleeding from his face, a coastguard official said.

He was later pronounced dead in hospital, but the precise cause of death was not immediately clear, the official said.

He was the second diver killed in the operation to retrieve hundreds of bodies from the 6,825-tonne Sewol ferry, which sank on 16 April off the southern coast of South Korea.

The Sewol was carrying 476 people – most of them schoolchildren.

No bodies have been recovered since 21 May, leaving the confirmed death toll at 288, with 16 still unaccounted for.

Divers have had to battle strong currents and work in near-zero visibility. Two dozen have been treated for injuries and decompression sickness.