Capital diver is frozen out of record bid

AN intrepid Arctic diver has been foiled in his attempts to break a world record - because the water was too cold.

Former Broughton High School pupil Daros Gray, who specialises in Arctic diving, was forced to abandon his quest to swim underwater in Sweden's deepest lake after temperatures plummeted to -30 C above ground and -3 C under water.

Mr Gray, a security contractor in the Capital, hoped to "free dive" in Lake Tornetrask, about 160 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and swim for up to 100m underwater without any scuba equipment.

But the ice was too thick for Mr Gray's team's cutting equipment and they were not able to carve out a channel for the attempt.

He said: "We were five days into the project and only had seven days there and we had only a short distance dug out, so there wasn't enough for the attempt.

"We would have been hoping to cut the hole in two days, then we would have three days to decide the best way to carry out the attempt as a team, but it didn't work like that."

The diver, a champion spear-fisherman who killed a five-metre great white shark in self-defence off Cape Town, South Africa, said he planned to return to the lake next year.

He added: "We have been asked to come and attempt again. Planning would be different, but the general knowledge of the really harsh conditions and how to remedy situations would also help."