A DRAMA unfolded on Dover seafront on Sunday night when a Coastguard helicopter from Southampton was called in to take a diver, believed to be suffering from the bends, to hospital in London.

People were cleared from the area, and traffic was diverted as the helicopter approached and landed on the beach.

The diver, with oxygen equipment attached to him, was carried from a nearby ambulance down onto the beach on on board the helicopter.

He had been landed by boat at Dover after complaining of feeling unwell following a dive off Dungeness. When he first surfaced, earlier in the afternoon, he had appeared to be fine, but later became ill.

He was flown to London for decompression treatment.