Image: Search for for missing Portuguese tourists in Croatia/Illustration CU
Updated August 13, 2026: Third missing Portuguese tourist found dead near Krk
The National Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rijeka (MRCC Rijeka) has reported that a third person has been found dead near the island of Krk as the search continues for the Portuguese tourists who went missing in the Velebit Channel.
The report of a body in the sea in Orgul Bay on Krk was received by MRCC Rijeka at 8:08 a.m. on August 13 through the Operations and Communications Centre of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar Police Administration.
The body was spotted during an aerial search by a police helicopter. A rescue boat from the Senj Harbour Master’s Office was immediately dispatched to the location.
Shortly after arriving at the scene, officers from the Senj Harbour Master’s Office recovered the body from the sea and transported it to Novi Vinodolski, where it was handed over to police.
Further procedures related to the recovery and formal identification are now under police jurisdiction.
The coordinated search for the remaining one missing person resumed at first light on August 13 and is continuing at the same intensity.
Rescue boats from the Senj and Rijeka harbour master’s offices, the Novi Vinodolski harbour master’s branch office and the Rijeka Maritime and Airport Police Station are involved in the operation, with support from the Croatian Coast Guard.
If necessary, officers from Crikvenica Police Station and members of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (HGSS) will also be deployed.
Earlier report: Search Continues for Two Missing Portuguese Nationals After Severe Bura in Velebit Channel
A major search and rescue operation is continuing for missing Portuguese tourists in Croatia after four young Portuguese nationals disappeared in the Velebit Channel during severe weather overnight. Two of the four have since been found on the island of Krk, while the search for the remaining two continues.
The National Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rijeka (MRCC Rijeka) received the report at 4:41 a.m. on Wednesday, August 12, after a friend of the missing group contacted the authorities.
According to information provided to rescuers, the four friends had set out from a campsite north of Senj in a small inflatable recreational boat, measuring up to 1.5 metres, intending to paddle towards Senj. Contact with them was subsequently lost.
Search for missing Portuguese tourists in Croatia launched amid severe bura
Weather conditions in the area have been extremely difficult since Tuesday, with strong bura winds and waves reaching up to three metres.
MRCC Rijeka immediately launched a coordinated search and rescue operation for the missing Portuguese tourists in Croatia, together with the Senj and Rijeka harbour master’s offices and the Novi Vinodolski harbour master’s branch office.
During the initial search, an abandoned floating vessel matching the description of the group’s inflatable boat was found near the coast of the island of Krk.
Conditions later became particularly dangerous across much of the search area, with hurricane-force bura gusts of around 60 knots and waves exceeding two metres. Some rescue units were forced to temporarily move into sheltered waters until conditions allowed them to continue operating.
MRCC Rijeka also requested assistance from available vessels of the Rijeka Maritime and Airport Police Station, while the Croatian Coast Guard was asked to deploy a Pilatus PC-9 aircraft to search a wider section of the Velebit Channel.
Police officers from Crikvenica were meanwhile deployed along the coast to conduct ground patrols and gather information about the missing people.
Portuguese woman found at sea
Senj Harbour Master Nenad Bugarin told HRT that the search initially focused on the coastline before being moved towards the eastern side of Krk.
The abandoned inflatable boat was found in Smokova Bay at around 8:10 a.m., but no one was on board.
A Pilatus aircraft joined the operation at around 10:40 a.m. and spotted a person in the sea shortly after 11 a.m. Rescue crews subsequently reached a Portuguese woman at around 11:40 a.m. in the area of Butinj Bay and transported her to Novi Vinodolski, where she was handed over to emergency medical personnel.
“We used the information she provided to help in the search for the other three men who had been in the boat,” Bugarin told HRT.
He said conditions had become somewhat more favourable around midday as the bura temporarily weakened, allowing the search at sea to continue.
Second person found on Krk, search continues for two others
HRT later reported that a second member of the group, a Portuguese man, had also been found on the island of Krk.
The search for the remaining missing Portuguese tourists in Croatia is continuing both at sea and on land.
According to HRT, a police Bell 412 helicopter joined the operation at around 2 p.m. and was searching above the southern part of Krk.
Two Czech nationals rescued from SUP board during storm
The case involving the missing Portuguese tourists in Croatia was one of several maritime emergencies reported in the Velebit Channel over the last few days.
MRCC Rijeka received another distress report at 9:23 p.m. on Tuesday involving two young Czech nationals who were in difficulty on a SUP board.
Communication was complicated by strong background noise from the storm, a language barrier and the distressed condition of the callers. Working with other emergency services, MRCC Rijeka established that their likely position was north of the islet of Zečevo and Mala Luka Bay on Krk.
Officers from the Senj Harbour Master’s Office located the pair on their SUP board at 10:31 p.m. They were taken aboard a rescue vessel and given assistance after becoming relatively hypothermic.
The two were then transported to Sveti Juraj, where police officers took them back to their original departure point.
Ferry crew rescues two Italians from drifting sailboat
A separate rescue operation took place early Wednesday after a 10.34-metre sailboat with two Italian nationals on board lost propulsion and began drifting uncontrollably under strong bura winds in the Velebit Channel near Stinica.
The crew of the motor ferry Barbat, operated by Rapska plovidba, responded as the nearest vessel after receiving a PAN-PAN urgency call via the Rijeka coastal radio station at 5:06 a.m.
At around 5:37 a.m., the ferry crew managed to take the sailboat under tow near Cape Glavina on the island of Rab, when it was only around 300 to 400 metres from the coast.
The sailboat was towed towards Mišnjak, allowing the Barbat to continue operating on its regular Jablanac–Mišnjak ferry route.
The vessel, owned by a Croatian charter company, was secured in Mišnjak harbour. Officers from the Rab harbour master’s branch office will investigate the circumstances that led to the maritime accident.
