Three divers die while exploring wreck off Florida

MIAMI (Reuters) - Three scuba divers died on Friday while exploring a sunken U.S. Navy ship off Florida's Key Largo, authorities said.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office said the three were part of a four-man team that set out from a commercial dive vessel to swim through the 510-foot (155-meter) USS Spiegel Grove, which lies under 130 feet of water off Key Largo.

One of the divers, who had been left outside the submerged ship, began to run out of air but surfaced safely, the sheriff's office said in a statement.

It said two divers from another boat went down to search for the others but found only one, who was in distress and pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital.

Key Largo Fire Rescue divers later found the bodies of the other two divers deep inside the wreck but were not immediately able to recover them.

The 6,880-ton ship was deliberately scuttled in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in 2002 to form the backbone of a coral ridge to nurture sea life and draw scuba divers.