TWO divers say they are lucky to be alive after becoming tangled in fishing nets off the Dorset coast.

The pair, both experienced divers, were 27 metres underwater at Swyre Ledges, two miles out of West Bexington, when they became caught in the nets and battled to cut themselves free.

Jim Walter, 67, who was with an instructor at the time, said the incident was scary and could have been very serious for less experienced divers.

Mr Walter said: "I want to warn other people. We were lucky, we were on more or less slack water so there was not a lot of current running.

"You only have to be out there when the current is running to get some idea of the force. You get washed into them there is no way you are going to cut back out of them against the current, all you can do is grab a knife and start chopping your way through it all." He said there were no markers to show the nets were there and if it was someone intentionally fishing they were "irresponsible".

Mr Walter said: "We had to cut ourselves out. There is some equipment down there we had to cut off and leave.

"If someone is netting I would consider it the height of irresponsibility because of the amount of diving that goes on there.

"It is quite likely, to be fair to the owner of the nets, that they have been dragged in by a boat and then got snagged on the reef and torn off as he's come over the reef."

Mr Walter, who was diving with Aqua Blue Divers of Bridport, added: "We were both experienced divers but the worry I have is if a novice got in there and panicked.

"There is a danger out there. It may be that someone is just not thinking or it may be totally accidental, but there are a lot of people that dive there. In the event they have been dragged in, the owner might like to go out there with a grappling hook and retrieve them.

"Swyre Ledges is a very regular diving spot. It would not be unusual to find relative beginners out there."

Instructor Gill Birks, of Aqua Blue, said it had been a frightening incident for the two divers.

She said: "We want to warn other divers that there are nets out there at the moment and they are very hard to see a lot of the time.

"It was a monofilament net, which are very hard to see, and we were concerned that other divers could get caught. Luckily they were both experienced and they handled it well, but it frightened them. It could have been fatal."

Portland coastguard watch manager Jim Anderson said: "It is not a common occurrence but there is always the possibility that there will be things on or below the surface that are a danger to divers, they have just got to be extra careful."