Advertisement

Search continues for missing teen sailor

The Local Austria
The Local Austria - [email protected]
Search continues for missing teen sailor
Photo: Bezirksfeuerwehrkommando Neusiedl am See

Police search and rescue teams have been out on Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland, looking for a 15-year-old boy who has been missing since Tuesday afternoon after he was swept away whilst sailing with his father.

Advertisement

The father (45) and his son, from Upper Austria, were out in a catamaran on Tuesday which capsized near Podersdorf. They were able to climb back onto the boat but the teenager then jumped overboard to untangle a rope, and was swept away by a large wave.

His father threw him a lifebuoy but was unable to catch hold of him and then lost sight of his son. He then made a distress call and was soon picked up by a rescue team. There has been no sign of his son since Tuesday.

"The situation is unchanged," police spokesman Wolfgang Bachkönig told the ORF. He said that police teams will be discussing whether to search the shores of the lake with sniffer dogs. They have already searched the lake with thermal imaging cameras.

The search has been more difficult because “the area where the boy went missing is the deepest part of the lake - almost two metres - so not the shallow part of Lake Neusiedl,” a spokesman from the fire department said. The water is also very cold, around 13 degrees.

Lake Neusiedl straddles the Austrian-Hungarian border and covers 315 km.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also