SUDAN — Neither Cypriot nor Sudanese governments have done anything to help locate Dimitris Matsas, a Cypriot paraplegic diver who has been missing since Sunday, friends and family said yesterday. The missing diver's cousin, Andreas Matsas, told state broadcaster CyBC that, having had no response from the Sudanese government, the family made an urgent appeal for help to the Cypriot government to no avail. The family still hopes that Matsas was simply carried off by the current and is waiting somewhere for help. His cousin Andreas said: "If he is still alive following his disappearance, and is lying on a beach somewhere in Sudan, then the only way of locating him is with a helicopter search." Dimitris Matsas, 39, who despite having to use a wheelchair has 15 years' diving experience, went missing on Sunday afternoon while diving on a wreck off the coast of Sudan as part of a group. His friend Debbie Bagdhatis, who was with him on the dive, said that she was swimming last in line behind Matsas when she started to develop problems in equalising pressure in her ears. "I signalled to Dimitri to stop and follow me back up, but he carried on following the others deeper into the wreck. I followed the rules and swam to the surface. When the group finished their dive and came back up, Dimitri wasn't with them." As soon as Bagdhatis raised the alarm, the diving instructors organised a search, which was unsuccessful. The diver's family hired a team of professional divers in Cyprus on their own initiative and at their own expense, and flew them to Sudan to carry out a further search for Matsas. by Charles Charalambous | | Dimitris Matsas, 39, a paraplegic scuba diver from Cyprus, is missing off the coast of Sudan. |
