Judiciary Police investigate death of 55-year-old man on the banks of Alqueva

The Judiciary Police (PJ) is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a man, which occurred today, whose body was found on the banks of the Alqueva reservoir, in the Mourão area, Évora district, reported the GNR.

The source from the GNR Territorial Command of Évora told the Lusa agency that the 55-year-old man was one of the passengers in a hot air balloon that was on a tourist trip and, because he was unwell, left on the banks of the reservoir.

The man was later found dead in that location, said the same source.

According to the GNR source in Évora, the case is being investigated by the PJ.

Contacted by Lusa, a source from the Central Alentejo Sub-Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Command highlighted that the alert for the occurrence was given at 10:19.

Also speaking to Lusa, Tiago Ramos, from the Mourão Municipal Civil Protection Service, limited himself to saying that the firefighters, when they arrived at the scene, found the body next to the banks of the reservoir.

Previously, according to this person, the victim’s body had been found by “an employee of the hot air balloon company”.

According to Tiago Ramos, from the Mourão Municipal Civil Protection Service, the balloon landed “on the other side of the bank”.
This tourist trip, he added, had started in Monsaraz, in the neighboring municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz.

The commander of the Mourão Fire Department, Fábio Quintas, told Lusa that the corporation’s operatives when they removed the victim from the water “was in cardiorespiratory arrest”.

“The VMER doctor [viatura médica de emergência e reanimação] confirmed the death”, he added.

Lusa tried to contact the company that owns the hot air balloon, but several attempts proved unsuccessful.

The relief operations mobilized a total of 18 operatives from the Mourão Fire Department, National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) and GNR.