The man is the second member of the same dive party to die after their exploration of a wreck 15 miles off the coast went wrong.

The man's body was found on Wednesday after police and some of the group returned to the scene and searched the seabed.

Another diver died on Tuesday while a third was taken to hospital but has now been released.

The two dead men have been identified by Sussex Police as Clyde Warner, from Slough in Berkshire, the first man to die, and Martin Reed, from Uxbridge in Middlesex, whose body was found on Wednesday.

Surfaced too quickly

The group were looking around a shipwreck 63 metres below the sea's surface on Tuesday, using the boat the Michelle Mary as their base off the coast of Shoreham.

Two divers suffered the bends after surfacing too quickly and were flown by coastguard helicopter to Portsmouth's Queen Alexandra Hospital.

Mr Warner, who was 56, died but the other man, who police say is from the Sutton area of Surrey, was treated in a decompression chamber and has since been released.

Mr Reed, who was in his 50s, was reported missing but extensive searches of the sea by the Shoreham lifeboat and the coastguard helicopter failed to find any sign of him and the operation was called off at nightfall on Tuesday.

Coastguards decided not to resume the search on Wednesday, but the crew of the Michelle Mary and some specialist police officers returned to the scene and a five-strong diving team found his body.

Sussex Police said on Thursday there were not believed to be any suspicious circumstances.

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.