Diving trio suffer bends

Three British divers were yesterday said to be doing well at a medical unit in Belgium after getting into difficulties off the Kent coast.

The trio, all members of a diving club in Folkestone, were thought to be suffering from "the bends" when they surfaced, a Dover coastguard said. He said that a helicopter had first planned to take the three men to a decompression unit at Portsmouth, Hampshire, but it was unable to land because of fog. The next nearest unit was in Ostend.