Portuguese president helps rescue two women after kayak swept away by current at Algarve beach

The Portuguese president swam to the rescue of two women at an Algarve beach after their kayak capsized.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters the women came into difficulty when they were swept away by a current at the Praia do Alvor beach on Saturday.

Video footage captured the moment the 71-year-old president swam towards the women and their capsized kayak.

The footage shows a person on a jet ski approaching the kayak to offer assistance while another man in the water provides support.

President Rebelo de Sousa told local reporters the women had come from a neighbouring beach.

He said: "As there is a very large west current, they were dragged out, turned around, swallowed a lot of water and were not even able to turn [the kayak], nor to climb [on it], or swim, such is the strength of the current."

He added that he was helped by another "patriot" on the jet ski.

The UK Government has advised against non-essential travel to mainland Portugal since March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Government updated its list of countries which are safe to travel to during the coronavirus pandemic but it did not remove Portugal from the quarantine list.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in