A trip on a mini-cruise ship to admire the treasures of Lake Garda and swim in the splendid waters off Punta San Vigilio quickly turned into a tragedy. One of the tourists on board, a 27-year-old boy, never resurfaced after diving off the ship. No one saw him again and, around 2.30 pm on Sunday 3 September, the call for help was triggered.

The coast guard of Salò has converged on the point two naval units. A marine rescuer was on board one of these boats: he dived at the point where the young man had dived, but the seabed – more than 16 meters deep – and the murky water did not allow the boy to be found in short times.

Surface and depth research
The divers of the firefighters of Bardolino and Venice and the divers of the coast guard of San Benedetto del Tronto were then called. And the units of the Garda Volunteers were also sent to the site for instrumental depth searches and the Peschiera del Garda police unit for the reconstruction of the event, in addition to the Red Cross water ambulance and the patrol boat of the brigade of the Bardolino fire for assistance to underwater operations.

The search lasted for hours, until the tragic discovery which took place around 21.30, when the divers identified the lifeless body of the 27-year-old lying on the bottom, 18 meters deep.
The boy’s body was recovered by the naval unit of the Bardolino fire brigade and transported to the beach. What happened is now being examined by state police officers, who are investigating to reconstruct the dynamics of the tragedy.