France: Two army divers found drowned

Two soldiers, aged 24 and 30, died during a diving accident that occurred during the night from Monday to Tuesday in Angers, during an exercise organized in the Maine River, we learned from the prosecution.

The two divers, one belonging to the 6th engineering regiment of Angers and the other to the 1st foreign engineering regiment of Laudun (Gard), were participating in a military diving course.

The exercise began around 11 p.m. in the waters of Maine and, around 2 a.m., contact was lost with the two divers, the prosecutor of the Republic of Angers, Eric Bouillard, told AFP.

According to initial information, the two divers could have been stuck in the cavity of a pier of a bridge spanning the river.

The searches undertaken made it possible to find the two soldiers who were in cardio-respiratory arrest when they were taken out of the water by the firefighters. They could not be revived and their death was pronounced at the hospital around 4:30 a.m., added Mr. Bouillard.

The Angers public prosecutor’s office relinquished the investigation on Tuesday morning in favor of the Rennes public prosecutor’s office, which has military jurisdiction. The investigation was entrusted to the research brigade of the Angers gendarmerie, specifies the Rennes public prosecutor’s office, which does not wish at this stage to communicate on the circumstances of the accident.

The diving course began in Saint-Mandrier (Var) for the sea part and continued in Angers for the fresh water part, according to an army source.