A British teenager has drowned after falling into a gulf stream while swimming with friends on a Portuguese beach.
The 19-year-old and two friends ran into trouble during a swim from a small sandy beach on the Costa da Caparica coast south of Lisbon.
The tragedy took place on Wednesday afternoon on Dragao Vermelho beach, English for Red Dragon beach.
Emergency services received an alert just before 6:30 p.m. local time and contacted police, coast guard and fire services and also mobilized a Portuguese Air Force aircraft.
The 19-year-old and two friends got into trouble while swimming on a small sandy beach on the Costa da Caparica, south of Lisbon.
Two of the three people, believed to be all British, had managed to get away by the time help arrived and a search was launched for the third ending with the discovery of his body on neighboring Tarquinio-Paraiso Beach.
The Portuguese National Maritime Authority (AMN) confirmed that the victim was from the UK.
The beach where the unnamed teen got into trouble is just over an hour south of Calada Beach north of Lisbon, where British financial adviser Trevor Selling, 45, drowned last June trying to save his two daughters when they got into trouble because of the strong current.
In a statement on the latest tragedy, the AMN said: “A 19-year-old young man, of English nationality, died on January 4 on the beach of Dragão Vermelho, on the coast of Caparica in the municipality of Almada, after being swept away in an electric shock while he was bathing with two friends.’
It said the alert was received at 6:20 pm through the Lisbon Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center and that the Lisbon Maritime Police was dispatched as part of an emergency response along with coastguards, paramedics and a Portuguese Air Force aircraft.
The organization added in its extended statement: “Upon arrival, the Maritime Police found that two of the three people reportedly in trouble in the water had made it to shore on their own and were being assisted on the spot. by medical experts.
An immediate search was launched for the third person, the 19-year-old man who was subsequently found dead by volunteer firefighters on the adjacent Tarquinio-Paraiso beach.
“He was pronounced dead on the spot by a doctor.”
An autopsy is believed to have taken place, but the results are not expected to be made public.
Mr Pelling was trying to help his two daughters, aged 12 and 9, when he drowned last June.
They were later taken to Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon for a medical examination and a psychologist was made available to assist the distressed youth and their mother.
In October 2019, yoga teacher Kim Fletcher, 33, and her former fiancé of hip-hop musician Danny Johnson, 34, died in Zambujeira do Mar in southwestern Portugal.
Danny swam out to try and rescue his partner when she was swept away by a dangerous wave, but they drowned after he reached her and tried to get her back to the shoreline.
The couple, from Stoke-on-Trent, had a four-year-old daughter named Aveyja and also cared for Kim’s 15-year-old girl Maicee from a previous relationship.
