Two men drowned over the “holiday atmosphere weekend” where temperatures soared, luring many on to the Algarve’s now unsupervised beaches.
The first tragedy took place in Albufeira on Saturday afternoon, claiming the life of a 69-year-old Irish tourist on holiday here with his wife.
The man was seen going into the water at Praia do Peneco and minutes later sighted “floating, apparently already dead”, reports Correio da Manhã.
Maritime police were called to the scene, but resuscitation efforts on shore proved fruitless.
The next day, further west in Lagoa, a 37-year-old man was “taken by a violent wave” of apparently almost three metres at Albandeira beach.
The Portuguese man, an emigrant on holiday here from Holland, had been enjoying the good weather with friends, explains CM this morning.
When the wave hit, a number of people got into difficulties, but managed to return to shore.
The dead man’s body was later recovered by a lifeboat 50 metres out to sea.
All the region’s beaches are now weeks away from the supervision of lifeguards – almost all of which pack up for the year mid-October.
As these latest tragedies hit the region, in Sagres another fisherman appears to have fallen to his death from a spot in Sagres known as Torre de Aspa.
The 48-year-old Portuguese is thought to have fallen 50 metres from the rock on which he was fishing.
A friend raised the alarm, but told the authorities he did not see a thing. One minute his friend was on top of the rock, overlooking the sea, and the next he was gone.
An Air Force helicopter, the town’s lifeboat and Maritime Police called off their searches as night fell yesterday and have resumed them this morning.
