Doctor disappears on scuba diving trip

A family doctor was missing feared drowned last night after he failed to resurface after a routine scuba dive with friends off south Wales. Rescue services were forced to abandon a search for Dr Nick Lupini, 58, because of bad weather.

A family doctor was missing feared drowned last night after he failed to resurface after a routine scuba dive with friends off south Wales. Rescue services were forced to abandon a search for Dr Nick Lupini, 58, because of bad weather.

Dr Lupini, a father of three, was an advanced diving instructor and conducted medical tests on other people involved in the sport. He had dived all over the world and was meticulous about safety. Dr Lupini, from Llanelli, was also a former police surgeon, a medic with the Territorial Army and honorary medical adviser to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

He disappeared during an outing from Port Eynon on the Gower coastline on Sunday afternoon. A coastguard spokesman said: "He went over the side of the boat and went down unusually quickly. One of the other divers went down after him but couldn't find him and raised the alarm." Search and rescue lifeboats and a police helicopter were scrambled.

Friends said that they could not believe the doctor had made a fatal mistake in an area he had dived in dozens of times before.

Owain Davies, a lifeboatman, said: "I have dived with Nick and have never known anyone as fastidious as he is. Something must have gone dreadfully wrong very quickly for him not to have performed his routine checks."