Less than two weeks into the official start of the beach season, a 16-year-old youth has drowned off a beach in the Algarve that is still without lifeguard support.
According to newspapers, the youngster dived off the pier at Três Pauzinhos beach, Vila Real de Santo António, and “disappeared”.
National tabloid Correio da Manhã has since explained the pier separates the beach from the estuary of the Guadiana river.
Três Pauzinhos is one of a number of beaches unsupervised by lifeguards, the paper adds, saying the teen was “taken by the tide” and a girl with him was “also pulled, but managed to get out of the water by herself”.
“The beach has a ‘concession’ (support business that must employ a lifeguard) but it is not yet working, due to the fact that it doesn’t have a lifeguard”, CM adds.
The alert went out at 6.30pm, but the boy’s body was not found until 8.10pm.
Maritime lifeguards were scrambled on jetskis, along with divers and other rescue craft.
All papers refer to the fact that resuscitation efforts were attempted by INEM.
No mention has been made of the dead boy’s nationality but CM has referred to both teens being VRSA residents.
