A British tourist has been found dead after going missing as he tried to cross a lake in Argentina in a kayak with his girlfriend.
The body 34-year-old, named locally as Thomas Mckendrick, was discovered just before midday on Wednesday, nearly 20 miles from where he was last seen.
He fell into the water a day earlier as he crossed Nahuel Huapi Lake, a glacial lake in the foothills of the Andes in northern Patagonia.
His girlfriend Charlotte Inman raised the alarm when the accident happened on Tuesday morning as they crossed the lake despite high winds to try to reach the famous town of Bariloche from an island called Isla Victoria.
Local authorities had reportedly closed the lake for nautical activities because of the weather conditions.
His partner, thought to be 35, is said to have been in another kayak which also overturned before she managed to get back into the boat and reach the coast.
Silvina Palenque, the owner of a house where the alarm was raised said:
"[The girlfriend] began to row desperately towards the coast to look for help and appeared here.
“They put her in a medical vehicle with heating and we gave her tea and changed her clothes and looked after her till the authorities arrived.
“She didn’t speak much Spanish but she kept on repeating in a state of shock, ‘What a bad decision!’
“She was constantly asking if they were still looking for her boyfriend.”
The missing Brit’s body was found around six miles east of Bariloche and nearly 20 miles from the spot where he vanished.
Local firefighter Lorena Oyarzun, speaking before the grim find, said they had begun a search with police and Naval Prefecture officials around 11am on Tuesday.
Confirming the accident had happened because of the heavy swell on the lake caused by the high winds, she said: “The British man’s girlfriend was very nervous and we tried to clam her down.
“She was also suffering from hypothermia.
“She kept on repeating that they had taken a bad decision.
“The conditions on the lake were not suitable for kayaking that day.
“They decided to try to cross it anyway and sadly this happened.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British man following his death in Argentina, and we are in contact with the Argentinian authorities”
