Diver dies on Bikini

MAJURO – A German tourist has died in a diving incident in the Marshall Islands.

The remains of German Hans Erich Volborth were being flown to Majuro from a distant northern atoll of Bikini in the Marshalls group.

The 75-year-old diver was reported to have died after he separated from a group that was diving on the World War II naval wrecks on Bikini’s lagoon floor.

Bikini was the site of 24 American nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s, including one that sank a fleet of U.S. and Japanese navy vessels.

Bikini Local Government Liaison Jack Niedenthal says it’s the first time that a diver has lost his life at the northern atoll since divers started visiting the atoll beginning in 1996.