Search resumes for British tourist missing after going for a swim at Algarve beach

A major search operation was due to resume this Friday for a British holidaymaker who went missing on Thursday after going for a swim at a popular Algarve beach.

The 23-year-old vanished after going into the sea with a 19-year-old who is also from the UK.

The younger man raised the alarm just before 6pm on Thursday after returning to the shoreline and a search involving police, coastguards, firefighters and Civil Protection workers using drones was launched.

Specialist divers were mobilised. Custom-equipped rescue vehicles deployed as part of the SeaWatch Project, a coastal surveillance and maritime rescue initiative run by the Portuguese Navy and the National Maritime Authority, are also being used.

The search operation was suspended on Thursday night but was due to resume at first light on Friday.

The British man, who has not been named, disappeared off Peneco Beach which is described online as the best in the popular Algarve resort of Albufeira.

It is also the town’s most photographed beach due to its central location and the large rock on the sand.

In a statement overnight, Portugal’s National Maritime Authority said: “The search for the 23-year-old British man who disappeared at sea yesterday afternoon, 11 June, at Peneco Beach in the municipality of Albufeira, was suspended at the beginning of the evening without him being found.

“The search operation, coordinated by the port captain and local commander of the Portimao Maritime Police involved, at sea, crew members from the Ferragudo lifeboat station and members of the Albufeira volunteer firefighters humanitarian association, including a diving team.

“Along the coastline, searches were carried out by personnel from the local command of the Portimao Maritime Police, the ‘SeaWatch’ Project, and the Albufeira Municipal Civil Protection Service, supported by drones, as well as the lifeguards on duty at the beach.

“The search operations will resume this morning.

“The information we have so far is that the missing man was accompanied by another, a 19-year-old British national, who apparently managed to get out of the water by his own means to seek help after which the other one disappeared.

“The British Embassy in Portugal, through the Consulate in Portimao, was activated to contact the missing man’s family and provide psychological support to the 19-year-old.”

In an earlier statement it revealed a search had got under way, saying: “The British man who managed to get out of the water by himself is physically well and does not require medical assistance.”

A British tourist aged 45 died at the same beach in September 2022 after falling ill as she came out of the sea.

Efforts to revive her after police and other emergency responders arrived proved unsuccessful.

The following month a British 60-year-old man was reportedly resuscitated by lifeguards and paramedics after collapsing on the sand.

On 4 June last year tragic Scottish tourist Greg Monks was found dead near Albufeira after going missing a week earlier in the resort.

The 38-year-old plant mechanic from Glasgow is believed to have lost his life after jumping over a wall and falling down a steep hillside during a night out with his stag do friends.

A search for him was launched on 28 May and his parents and girlfriend Nicole Kelso flew to the Algarve to help with the efforts to find him.

Around four hours before Greg’s body was found by police, another young British tourist was found dead behind a steep drop at the back of a residential block by Albufeira’s Old Town.

The 21-year-old, also said to have gone out drinking with pals and thought to have become disorientated as he tried to get back to his hotel, was never named.

News of his death only emerged three days after Greg was found dead.

In July last year British friends King Edonmi, 29 and Mo Lisau, 27, were discovered lifeless in their Albufeira hotel pool.

Portuguese police sources subsequently said ahead of post-mortems they believed the design of the pool combined with the fact they couldn’t swim had likely led to their deaths.