The body of a person was found yesterday in the area of Tróia, in the municipality of Grândola, Setúbal district, the spokesman for the National Maritime Authority, Commander José Sousa Luís, told Lusa news agency.
Contacted by Lusa, a source from the Alentejo Litoral Sub-Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Command confirmed that a body had been found at 18:42 on Bico das Lulas beach in Tróia.
According to the same source, the health delegate was at the scene at 20:55 and the Grândola firefighters were awaiting authorization to transport the body to the Hospital do Litoral Alentejano in Santiago do Cacém.
Also on Thursday, the body of a man, “in an advanced state of decomposition”, was found on a beach in the Comporta area, in the municipality of Grândola, sources from the National Maritime Authority (AMN) and Health said today.
The AMN and Portuguese Navy source contacted by the Lusa news agency said that “a body appeared in the Comporta area”.
However, he stressed that he didn’t know “whether or not” it was the body of one of the two men who went missing in the shipwreck near Tróia (Grândola) on the 7th.
“If it’s related to the Troia shipwreck, the case is being held in secret because criminal proceedings are underway,” the source limited himself to saying, refusing to give any more information.
Also speaking to Lusa, a source from the local health authority revealed that the body found on the beach on Thursday was that of “a man in an advanced state of decomposition”.
The captain of the Port of Setúbal and local commander of the Maritime Police, Marco Serrano Augusto, invoked the secrecy of justice to withhold details of Thursday’s incident.
“I had an incident at Praia da Torre”, in the Comporta area, “which was attached to a criminal case that is being held in secret”, he limited himself to saying.
According to a report in the Correio da Manhã newspaper, the “data points to a strong probability” that the body found on Thursday “is one of the two castaways” from the ship that sank in Tróia.
On the 7th, a boat named “Lingrinhas” was carrying four men and an 11-year-old boy, allegedly to go fishing for cuttlefish, when it sank about a mile and a half (approximately three kilometers) from Tróia.
The boat reportedly sank at around 07:00, but the Maritime Police only received the alert three hours later, at 10:05.
The boat’s helmsman and owner, a 62-year-old man, was rescued alive by another boat passing through the area and, on the day of the shipwreck, the bodies of the 11-year-old boy and another man, aged 23, were pulled from the sea.
The search continued and involved land, sea and air resources for several days, with the authorities trying unsuccessfully to locate the other two missing passengers, the boy’s father and the other man, aged 21, brother of the 23-year-old who had already been found.