Emergency services are continuing to search for a thirty-six-year-old man who went missing at sea off the coast between Guardamar and Santa Pola, in the province of Alicante. The operation is being led by the Maritime Service of the Guardia Civil alongside Maritime Rescue, after a small inflatable boat suffered a mechanical failure.

The incident began on Saturday evening when the engine of the boat stopped and water started to enter the vessel. The two men on board, cousins from the Murcian town of Abanilla, had travelled to Guardamar earlier that day to test the newly purchased inflatable craft. With the coast visible around a kilometre away, one of them entered the water wearing a life jacket in an attempt to swim ashore and raise the alarm.

The other man, aged thirty-seven, remained on the boat and was located on Sunday afternoon by a Maritime Rescue aircraft about fifteen nautical miles off Santa Pola. He was rescued alive, suffering from hypothermia, and taken to hospital in Elche. The search continues for the missing man, with boats, aircraft and specialist diving units involved, as concerns grow due to low sea temperatures.