Search for men swept away from A Coruña beach continues
Missing are a Slovakian exchange student and the officers who tried to help him
The search continued on Sunday for three missing men, including two police officers, who were swept away by gigantic waves off A Coruna's Orzán beach. The body of a third officer was recovered on Friday.
The incident occurred late Friday night, when a group of Erasmus students gathered for a beachside party. One of the students, Thomas Velcky of Slovakia, stuck his feet in the water before being swept away by a massive wave. Police officers and bystanders tried to rescue the 23-year-old student by holding on to a rope but another wave pulled in three officers. The body of one of the policemen, Javier López López, was found hours later.
Searchers continued to look for Velcky and the two other officers, Rodrigo Maseda Lozano, 35, and José Antonio Villamor Vázquez, 34.
"It was an accident that ended in tragedy," said Ignacio Ulloa, Galicia's secretary of state for public security.
During the winter season, people often gather near the city side beach to watch the waves crash into the seawall. In 2007, the waves swept away a 32-year-old Madrid woman while she was walking on the beach with her husband.