AN exploding scuba diving tank killed two Polish tourists and seriously injured two others overnight on a Croatian island, officials said. The first victim on the southern island of Vis was a 48-year-old Polish woman who died on the spot, a police spokeswoman said."

The diving tank exploded while it was being unloaded from a boat on the coast in the port of Komiza," the transport and sea ministry said.The cause of the blast was most likely a valve that popped out, it said.

Three other injured tourists - two men and a woman - were immediately transported to a hospital in the coastal town of Split on the mainland. One of them, a 43-year-old man who sustained a head injury, died in the hospital overnight, its surgical department said. The victims were in a group of 12 Polish tourists who arrived in Komiza to go scuba diving, the ministry said. Croatia, which has a population of 4.4 million, attracts more than 10 million tourists each year, who mainly visit the country's Adriatic coast.