'Missing' diver was ashore

According to South African press, the 21-year-old man was reported lost by friends after the group had gone diving off Oudekraal, in the Western Cape.

The report was lodged at 9.45pm and the individual was located, in good health, by searchers on a local road at 9am the following morning.

Regarding what had happened in between, a spokesman for the National Sea Rescue Institute would not be drawn, saying that “police are handling that”.

A Western Cape police spokesman confirmed that the police were investigating the incident.

He did not rule out the possibility that a hoax had been perpetrated, nor that criminal charges might follow if it had.