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| French tourists die snorkelling on Great Barrier Reef | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Two French tourists have died while snorkelling on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. | |
| The pair were found unconscious in shallow water near Cairns in Far North Queensland at about 11:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday, police said. | |
| The man and woman were both aged in their mid-to-late sixties, said Col McKenzie, chief of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators. | |
| The Courier Mail reported the pair suffered cardiac arrests. | |
| The incident happened at Michaelmas Cay, a popular tourist spot about 40km (25 miles) northeast of Cairns. | The incident happened at Michaelmas Cay, a popular tourist spot about 40km (25 miles) northeast of Cairns. |
| Mr McKenzie said the French tourists were on the reef with experienced operator Passion of Paradise. | |
| "The two people indicated they had pre-existing medical conditions before they got in the water," he told the BBC. | |
| "The company actually had guides in the water swimming around the snorkellers making sure they were OK." | |
| The man was spotted in distress first, Mr McKenzie said. A lookout pulled him to the beach tried to resuscitate him. | |
| "Minutes afterward, the lookout who was working on the boat spotted somebody face down in the water, not moving. They swam over and pulled them onto the boat and commenced resuscitation." | |
| Mr McKenzie said Passion of Paradise had taken more than 400,000 people to the reef since it began operating in 1989. |