A Baildon holidaymaker has suffered serious spinal injuries in a diving accident in Turkey.

Andrew Race, 33, was injured diving off a cliff into a waterfall at a Turkish holiday resort. His family are now anxiously waiting to hear if he will walk again.

His daredevil stunt was witnessed by his girlfriend Dionne Chappell, 22, who has told relatives that several other tourists completed the dive without incident during a 'safari' style day trip.

She is now at her partner's bedside in Marmaris State Hospital, where doctors carried out a six-hour operation after the accident on Friday.

Mr Race's younger brother Wayne - a former Bradford Northern rugby player - has flown out to the Mediterranean resort to join them at the hospital.

Margaret White, Dionne's aunt, said: "He is now breathing on his own and he is talking. The hospital has been brilliant. He had an operation where they took a bit of bone from his leg and put it in the back of his spine."

Mr Race is a building-site worker who leads an active, sporty life and enjoyed working out in the gym, she added. "He's a nice, fellow cheerful and a hard worker and they seemed madly in love most of the time. This is a tragic thing to happen to someone at the age of 33.

"He wasn't on his own jumping off the cliff. Dionne said there were loads of people doing it. The excursion they were on was not an official one. They had booked it on the beach, but I think they should have been warned it was dangerous."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We understand he was injured when he dived into a waterfall near the village of Turgut on August 21.

"His next-of-kin has been informed and I understand his brother Wayne is with him in hospital.

"Staff from the British Consulate are in touch with Marmaris State Hospital and are also planning to visit him there."

Mr Race's younger brother Wayne is a former Bradford Northern and Keighley Cougars player, now playing for Dudley Hill. Kelvin Lockett, coach of the Dudley Hill rugby club, said: "Wayne spoke to me on Friday night and told me his brother was on a life-support machine and said he was going out to Turkey to be with him."

The couple had been due to fly home tomorrow and are waiting to hear when Mr Race can be flown home.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.