Free-diving great feared drowned as search called off

Spain’s rescue services called off their underwater search for missing free-diving great Natalia Molchanova yesterday after spending more than two days looking for her off the Balearic Islands.

The county’s maritime rescue service and the police specialist underwater team both said they were limiting their operations to monitoring the Mediterranean Sea surface for any trace of the 53-year-old Russian.

AIDA, the international diving federation, said in a statement that Molchanova was diving on Sunday without fins at a depth of 30-40 meters (100-130ft) off the coast of Formentera when she failed to resurface.