The prosecutor’s office began an investigation into the sinking of the ship near Troy

The Prosecutor’s Office (PO) has launched a criminal investigation after the sinking of a ship on Sunday near Troia in the municipality of Grandola (Setúbal), leaving two dead and two missing, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

When asked by Lusa about the case, a source from the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGR) responded via email today that an “investigation” has been launched.

“It is run by Grandola’s public ministry,” imitated the same source.

In a conversation with Lusa, the captain of the port of Setúbal and the local commander of the marine police, Serrano Augusto, explained to the Lusa agency that in addition to the “investigation of the maritime accident” that he ordered to be launched because the sinking led to the loss of life, he also conveyed this data to the MP.

“From the moment of death,” and in this case there are already two dead and two missing, “a criminal case has been opened,” he said. At the same time, “the certificate was received and handed over to the deputy” himself, “as the local chief of the maritime police.”

The investigation into the maritime disaster, which was assigned to Serrano Augusto as “Captain of the Port of Setúbal” to begin, “is ongoing and aims to investigate the causes of the maritime disaster.”

“Whenever there is an accident with a vessel, such a procedure is initiated to investigate the relevant causes,” he emphasized. Subsequently, he continued, “for reasons that may be investigated, there may or may not be an administrative offense in accordance with certain standards, rules, notices and established laws.”

“As a rule, these administrative violations, if any, are applied by the port captain to the owner or helmsman of the vessel,” he said. But in the case of the shipwreck that occurred about one and a half miles (about three kilometers) from Troy on Sunday, as a result of which the helmsman and owner of the sunken ship was rescued alive, there are still no conclusions: “Everything is under investigation,” Serrano Augusto emphasized .

“Investigation procedures are ongoing and all necessary steps will be taken to establish the facts, which may include technical expertise, if necessary police expertise and a number of steps,” he told Luse.

The search for the two missing from the shipwreck resumed at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and expanded “to eight nautical miles (about 14 kilometers)” to the west and south, a spokesman for Portugal’s Maritime Authority (AMN) said. and the commander of the Portuguese Navy, José Sousa Luis.

The sinking of the ship, on which five people were traveling – four men and a boy, occurred at about 7:00 am on Sunday, but the alarm was received by the marine police only at 10:05.

The coxswain and owner of the fishing boat, a 62-year-old man, was rescued alive from the sea by another boat passing through the area, and on Sunday the bodies of an 11-year-old boy, whose father, aged about 45, is still missing, as well as an adult man, 23, whose brother, 21, is the second missing person.