The trapped man's body was recovered 37 metres below the surface at Mt Schank, near Mt Gambier, in south-east South Australia, yesterday afternoon.

The 52-year-old was diving with a friend in Kilsby Sinkhole and became tangled in a cable on Saturday about noon, police said.

His friend tried to free him as both ran low on oxygen. Paramedic David Adkins said: ''It got to the point where he had to save himself.''

Senior Constable Mick Abbott said police retrieved the body yesterday afternoon.

"I don’t know how experienced a diver he was but he has obviously got in some sort of difficulties,’’ he said.

Police had not released the name of the men, but both are believed to be from Victoria.

A spokeswoman for the SA Ambulance Service said emergency services crews were involved in ‘‘a retrieval mission’’.

She said paramedics were not required to treat the dead man’s diving partner and were not involved in taking the victim’s body from the cave. Police divers entered the cave to bring the body back to the surface.

Located in an extinct volcano, Kilsby Sinkhole is a popular cave diving spot on farmer's property near Mt Shank. Divers can descend to 40 metres and in what a local diving website described as a "huge, spectacular boot shaped sinkhole with absolutely gin clear water".