A body has been found after a search operation was launched for a British man, 23, who went missing in a popular holiday hotspot.
The man went missing while swimming in the sea in Portugal last week, according to local authorities.
Portugal’s National Maritime Authority said the 23-year-old disappeared on Thursday while swimming with a 19-year-old man, also from the UK, at Peneco Beach in Albufeira, on Portugal’s southern coast.
Portuguese police said a body, believed to be that of the missing man, was recovered on Tuesday afternoon off the coast of Albufeira.
“Following an alert at 6.37 pm from a fisherman in the vicinity, officers from the Portimao Local Maritime Police Command, the Albufeira Volunteer Firefighters’ Humanitarian Association and the Albufeira Municipal Civil Protection Service were mobilised,” Portuguese police said in a statement.
View 2 ImagesPraia do Peneco in Albufeira, one of the beaches in this famous seaside resorts in the Algarve(Image: Getty Images)
“On arrival at the scene, members of the Maritime Police, in collaboration with the Fire Brigade, transported the victim to Albufeira Marina.”
A local Maritime Police official said: “Death was confirmed at the scene and, following contact with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the body was transported by the Fire Brigade to the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the Western Algarve.
“The British Consulate in Portimao was contacted and informed of the incident.
“The Maritime Police’s Portimao Local Command took charge of the incident.”
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been contacted for comment.
A search was launched after the man went missing last Friday, according to the National Maritime Authority.
Article continues below
The 19-year-old British national who was with the 23-year-old “apparently managed to get out of the water by his own means to seek help after which the other one disappeared”.