A Briton and an Australian have been found dead on a popular tourist beach in Portugal, apparently losing their balance on a high wall after taking photographs.
Portugal’s Correio da Manhã newspaper reported that the couple died on the Praia dos Pescadores (Fishermen’s Beach) near Ericeira, a seaside resort on the country’s west coast about 25 miles north of Lisbon.
Rui Pereira da Terra, head of the rescue service in Cascais port near Lisbon (a captain with the local naval authority), told the news agency Lusa that officials suspected the man and woman had been taking a selfie when they fell from the 30-metre high wall overlooking the beach.
“Since we found a mobile phone on the wall, everything suggests the victims might have been taking a selfie,” he was quoted as saying. He suggested that perhaps they had been trying to recover a phone when they fell.
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A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are in touch with local authorities following the death of a British woman in Portugal and are providing support to her family.”
The newspaper report did not name the couple but said the woman was 30 and the man 40, although other reports gave slightly different ages. The paper added that a beach cleaner had found the bodies early on Tuesday morning.
Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade told AAP it was providing consular assistance to “the family of an Australian who died in Portugal”.
“The department has been in contact with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office regarding the other person who died in the incident,” the department said in a statement on Wednesday.
Another newspaper, the Jornal de Notícias, said fishermen had discovered a “horror scene” when they came across the bodies at about 6.30am.
“At first the fishermen thought the corpses, from far away, might be people sleeping on the beach,” the newspaper said. “Only when they got closer did they realise that it was a dead couple and they were shocked with what they saw.”
Ericeira is a popular surfing spot with a beach ringed by cliffs. Other tourists have been reported to have fallen off the beach wall.