Guadia Civil and Civil Protection officers in Torrox on Thursday afternoon e. cabezas

Body found attached to a buoy in front of Torrox lighthouse

The Guardia Civil recovered the body of a man in his 50s after the alarm was raised by a cleaning boat

Friday, 9 September 2022, 08:36

The body of a man, believed to be around 50 years old, was found attached to a buoy in front of Torrox lighthouse on Thursday afternoon. It was 4.20pm when the skipper of a cleaning boat belonging to the company Servimar, which provides a cleaning service for the Axarquia coastline, raised the alarm. He had noticed a submerged body just a few centimetres from the surface of the water. “It looked like a man,” said the skipper, Paco Atencia.

Atencia jumped into the water to have a closer look and it was then that he noticed the body was tied to a rope of a yellow buoy, some 200 metres from the shore. He alerted the 112 emergency number, which mobilised the Civil Protection volunteers, Civil Guard, Local Police and Maritime Rescue services.

Specialised diving officers from the GEAS; the Armed Forces from Benalmádena, were in charge of extracting the body, which was attached with two ropes and two safety carabiners to the chain that holds the buoy in place. He was wearing a weight belt, swimming trunks and diving goggles.

The body was taken to Caleta de Vélez harbour, where authorities confirmed that the body was a man of around 50 years old. No further details have been revealed. The main hypothesis is that he was freediving and may have passed out when he was very close to the surface. The body will undergo an autopsy at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Malaga.

A Guardia Civil vehicle near Torrox lighthouse on Thursday afternoon e. cabezas