The group were diving 15 miles off the Sussex coast at Shoreham

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed on Wednesday it would not be resuming the search for the 58-year-old Middlesex man.

He was one of three men involved in a dive to look around a wreck 15 miles off the coast of Shoreham on Tuesday.

One of the other two divers died after suffering the bends when he surfaced too quickly, while the third man is in hospital.

We are very confident that if there was anyone on the surface of the water we would have found them Joanne Groenenberg, Maritime and Coastguard Agency

The emergency services were called just before 1230 BST on Tuesday by the skipper of the Michelle Mary, the boat the men were using as their base.

He reported two of the men had been injured after coming up too quickly from the shipwreck 63 metres below the sea's surface and the third man was missing.

The two injured men were flown by coastguard helicopter to Portsmouth's Queen Alexandra Hospital.

One of the men, from Slough in Berkshire, died later on Tuesday.

The second man, who is from Surrey, remains in hospital on Wednesday with injuries which are said to be non life-threatening, after treatment in a decompression chamber.

'Very thorough search'

The helicopter returned to the scene and joined the Shoreham lifeboat in searching for the missing third diver, who is from Uxbridge in Middlesex.

The search was called off at nightfall with no sign of the man.

Coastguards said early on Wednesday they would be making a decision later in the day as to whether to resume the search, but at about 1200 BST they confirmed they would not be.

Spokeswoman Joanne Groenenberg said: "We have now finished our search.

"The dive boat Michelle Mary has gone out again to search the area but that is a private search, we are not involved.

"Yesterday we did a very thorough search.

"We searched everywhere we could and that is why we are not resuming the search today.

"We are very confident that if there was anyone on the surface of the water we would have found them.

"The diver is still missing."

Sussex Police said there was no suggestion of foul play over the incident.

The force's underwater search team is preparing a report into the incident and examining the equipment used by the three experienced divers, in an attempt to find out what had happened.