A 23-year-old British tourist has been found dead after being swept out to sea in the popular holiday destination of Bali, an official said on Friday.
Harrison Edward Nada Kontounas from Ilford in east London, was reportedly swimming at Bali’s Legian Beach on Wednesday when a riptide pulled him under the waves. The Briton was in the water with two other friends when he went missing, according to local reports.
The Briton’s body was found on Friday at around 12.30pm local time, the Denpasar Search and Rescue Office told The Independent. I Nyoman Sidakarya, the head of Denpasar Search and Rescue Office, said Kontounas’s body was found by “the joint SAR [search and rescue] team and the military equipment used for the evacuation, a jetski from Balawista”.
The body was taken to Ngoerah General Hospital, the rescue department said. “After being granted permission by the hospital to view the body, it was confirmed that the body found was that of Harrison Edward Nada Kontounas,” the rescue office said in a post on its Instagram page.
I Nyoman Sidakarya earlier said the trio entered the water near an area marked with red flags. When lifeguards advised the group to leave the water due to the dangerous conditions, two of them complied and returned to the shore.
However, the riptide struck Kontounas and pulled him to the water, leading to his disappearance, The Bali Media reported.
He said the search operation could not be conducted at sea on Wednesday night due to safety concerns, but officials carried out shoreline patrols until 10pm local time. “Wind speeds above 30-39kmph can be categorised as strong, it affects conditions in the waters. So we are urged to be careful when doing outdoor activities, including tourism on the beach,” he added.
He said the search was hampered by waves as high as 8ft.
The search to find the Briton resumed around 7.15am local time on Thursday, with authorities deploying multiple units across land, sea, and air.
However, Kontounas’s friend Freddie Palmer, who was with the Briton when he went missing, said he was unhappy with the way the search was being conducted.
He told BBC News that lifeguards took three hours to arrive and that the group paid £1,700 themselves for a helicopter search but no trace of Kontounas was found. “We are traumatised. We just believe that the authorities here could have acted quicker and maybe he would be sitting here with us right now,” he said.
The Independent has reached out to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for a comment.
