Locals in El Varadero breathed a sigh of relief last year when illegal camping at Punta Blanca was stopped and enforced by the local authorities. Suddenly there was an end to aggressive behaviour, noise in the streets, piles of rubbish left on the beach and a noticeable difference in the number of car and house break-ins.

However, other local authorities are not enforcing the law and over the Easter Weekend more than 10,000 illegal campers descended on the south coast of Tenerife.

There is only 1 authorised campsite in Tenerife, Montaña Roja, El Médano, which has toilet and washing facilities.

Campers complain that the site is too expensive, almost as expensive as staying in a hotel, and has very strict rules. They claim they are forced, year after year, to camp illegally facing harassment from local authorities and call on the government to create more authorised campsites at affordable prices.

The massive air–sea rescue search for the 2 missing divers who failed to surface after a cave dive at Palm Mar, near Punta Rasca on Thursday has so far been unsuccessful.

The Guardia Civil have brought in a robotic video submarine from the mainland to aid in the search for the two divers which can dive to a depth of 150 meters.

The divers have been named as Guardia Civil Sergeant Luis Santamaria, 46, a native of Seville, now based in Tenerife, and 33-year-old Belgian, Phlip K, who lives in Arona, son of the La Ballena diving club owner.

This weekend saw the spring equinox which causes very high and very low tides which generate stronger than normal currents adding problems to the search.

A team from the rescue boat, Pico Teide, while out searching for the two missing divers, came across an unrelated body yesterday, floating 300m from the beach at Fañabe. The corpse was taken to Santa Cruz where experts are trying to identity of the body of the Caucasian male, around 30 years old, dressed in blue jeans, black shoes, blue Speedo swim trunks, and a long sleeved red T-shirt.