Search called off after British tourist lost at sea on Croatian cruise

The search for a missing British tourist who fell from a cruise ship in the Adriatic Sea has been called off.

Searchers spent four days looking for the traveller , who has not been named but is believed to be a man, after they went missing in the early hours of Friday from the Royal Caribbean 's Explorer of the Seas.

Local reports said he fell from the luxury boat near Jabuka, an island off the coast of Croatia, as it made its way to the resort of Zadar.

Another passenger, Nicole Bullock, said she was woken up by an emergency message after the tourist vanished.

Writing online, she said: “Woken up on the cruise ship around 3.40am to the emergency message'"Oscar Oscar Oscar off the port side". Man overboard.”

She said the Croation coast guard was assisting with the search and the planned stop in Zadar was cancelled because of the “heartbreaking situation”.

The President of the Croatian Sea Captains association said:  “Since the man has been in the sea for over 40 hours, we are already losing hope. We would all like him to be found, but 40 hours is a very long time and we are losing hope that this search will end successfully.”

Six years ago, a British woman survived after spending 10 hours in the sea after falling from the back of a Norwegian Cruise Line ship as it sailed 60 miles off the Croatian coast on its way to Venice.

Kay Longstaff said she felt “very lucky” to have survived the ordeal and thanked her “wonderful” rescuers as she was taken to a hospital in the Croatian town of Pula.

She told Croatian news channel HRT: “I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star and I was in the water for 10 hours, so these wonderful guys rescued me.”

She added: “I am very lucky to be alive. I was sitting at the back of the deck.”

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