Authorities have resumed the search this morning for a US citizen who has been missing since Friday after diving off a cliff in the municipality of Vila do Bispo in the Algarve, the National Maritime Authority (AMN) said.
According to the person in charge of search operations, the Harbor Master and local commander of the Lagos Marine Police, a diving operation began near the rock at 9:30 am to check if the 27-year-old man was trapped. in one of several underwater caves that are located on the territory.
On Sunday, a team of NCIS divers tried three times to find the missing young man next to the rock, but the state of the sea always prevented the divers from conducting an underwater check, he told the Lusa agency at the end of the day, the person in charge, Pedro da Palma.
According to the AMN communiqué, the search operations, coordinated by the Commander of the Lagos Maritime Police, involve units of the Local Command of the Lagos Maritime Police, the Sagres Rescue Station, the Maritime Police Forensic Team and the Sagittarius ship of the Portuguese Navy, as well as elements of the volunteer firefighters of Vila do Bispo.
” […] The man was walking, accompanied by a man, along a cliff between Praia do Barranco and Praia da Ingrina when he allegedly dived into the sea and eventually disappeared, ”the note says.
The harbor master of Lagos told Lusa on Sunday that authorities attempted to make three dives that day, but they were “aborted for safety reasons” because the sea was “very rough”.
The harbor captain of Lagos stressed that the surf was intense in the area of the cliff where the young man jumped into the water and “the victim could have been trapped in some cave or cavern” underwater.
“Only diving can test this possibility, but for this you need to have favorable sea conditions,” he noted, noting that there is also the possibility that the sea dragged the victim and then washed it ashore.
The missing American was alerted around 8:00 p.m. Friday, and the search continued for part of the night before being aborted due to poor visibility at the scene, AMN said on Friday evening.
After the incident, the Department of Psychology of the Maritime Police provided assistance to the person accompanying the victim, he concluded.