The Civil Guard finds the second body on the coast of Alicante, this Sunday. Civil Guard
The bodies of seven people, two of them minors, have been recovered from the sea off the border coast between Murcia and Alicante, between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. The possible North African origin of the deceased, together with the discovery of a boat with a single occupant in the waters of Xàbia (Alicante) last Saturday, seem to indicate that they are the crew of a boat that suffered a shipwreck, indicates the Civil Guard, whose maritime service is in charge of rescuing the dead bodies. Sources close to the investigation advance that more bodies could be found floating, since this type of boat is usually occupied by 14 or 15 people, usually.
Last Saturday, around 3:45 p.m., a Maritime Rescue helicopter rescued a person who was sailing alone and adrift aboard a six-meter-long fiberglass boat without an engine, 30 nautical miles from Cabo de La Nao, in Xàbia. His only crew member, who lacked documentation, stated that he was 21 years old and came from Morocco, without providing further information. In the registry of the ship, sources close to the case comment, basic belongings appeared in this type of voyage and the papers of more people, who were not on board.
The discovery of the bodies, supposed companions of the rescued migrant’s journey, took place, however, about 200 kilometers from the coast further south, on the border between the waters of the Mar Menor (Murcia) and those of the Alicante municipalities of Pilar de la Horadada and Torrevieja. Around 1 pm yesterday, the members of the Civil Guard found the first human remains, in waters belonging to the Murcian municipality of San Javier. Throughout the afternoon, and until 10:40 p.m., four more appeared, another in La Manga and three in Pilar de la Horadada. At 12 o’clock on Monday morning, the sixth body appeared in the Murcian town, while the seventh was located three miles off the coast of Torrevieja, approximately two hours later.
The bodies have been sent to forensic institutions in both provinces to determine “the causes of death, sex, age and possible nationality of all of them”, although from the investigation they point out that at least two are minors, one of them a child of four years, and that among the rescued bodies there is a woman. In some of the cases, the sources consulted by EL PAÍS continue, the human remains were in an advanced state of decomposition.
The Civil Guard continues trying to relate the deceased shipwrecked with the lone crew member of Xàbia. The usual circumstances in which this type of crossing occurs, in which the ships are crowded with people, could raise the total number of deaths to over ten, the researchers say.
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