A body has been found in the search for a missing British tourist who vanished while swimming in the sea in Portugal last week.

The 23-year-old was last spotted swimming on Peneco Beach in Albufeira on Thursday with a 19-year-old man, also from the UK. 

The teenager managed to exit the water without needing any help and sought assistance for his companion, according to the National Maritime Authority (AMN).

A large search operation was launched to try and find the missing holidaymaker in the resort of Albufeira.

However after days of searching, police confirmed that a body had been found and it was believed to be the missing man. 

Confirming the tragic find, Portuguese police said: 'A body, believed to be that of a 23-year-old British man who had been missing since 11 June, was found this afternoon, June 16, off the coast of Albufeira.

'Following an alert at 6.37 pm from a fisherman in the vicinity, officers from the Portimao Local Maritime Police Command, the Albufeira Volunteer Firefighters' Humanitarian Association and the Albufeira Municipal Civil Protection Service were mobilised.

'On arrival at the scene, members of the Maritime Police, in collaboration with the Fire Brigade, transported the victim to Albufeira Marina.'

A Maritime Police official for the area added: 'Death was confirmed at the scene and, following contact with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the body was transported by the Fire Brigade to the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the Western Algarve.

'The British Consulate in Portimao was contacted and informed of the incident.

'The Maritime Police's Portimao Local Command took charge of the incident.'

Police officials had been updating their official social media sites with information about the search over the weekend, but had said nothing since Sunday.

The alarm was raised just before 6pm on Thursday when the younger of the two Brits returned to the shoreline.

Specialist divers were mobilised as well as police, coastguards, firefighters and Civil Protection workers.

In a statement late Friday, Portugal's National Maritime Authority said: 'The search for the 23-year-old British man who disappeared at sea yesterday afternoon, June 11, at Peneco Beach in the municipality of Albufeira, was suspended at the beginning of the evening without him being found.

'The search operation, coordinated by the Port Captain and Local Commander of the Portimao Maritime Police involved, at sea, crew members from the Ferragudo Lifeboat Station and members of the Albufeira Volunteer Firefighters Humanitarian Association, including a diving team.

'Along the coastline, searches were carried out by personnel from the Local Command of the Portimao Maritime Police, the 'SeaWatch' Project, and the Albufeira Municipal Civil Protection Service, supported by drones, as well as the lifeguards on duty at the beach.

'The search operations will resume this morning.

'The information we have so far is that the missing man was accompanied by another, a 19-year-old British national, who apparently managed to get out of the water by his own means to seek help after which the other one disappeared.

'The British Embassy in Portugal, through the Consulate in Portimao, was activated to contact the missing man's family and provide psychological support to the 19-year-old.'

In an earlier statement it revealed a search had got underway, saying: 'The British man who managed to get out of the water by himself is physically well and does not require medical assistance.'

A British tourist aged 45 died at the same beach in September 2022 after falling ill as she came out of the sea.

Efforts to revive her after police and other emergency responders arrived proved unsuccessful.

The following month a British 60-year-old man was reportedly resuscitated by lifeguards and paramedics after collapsing on the sand.

On June 4 last year tragic Scots tourist Greg Monks was found dead near Albufeira after going missing a week earlier in the resort.

The 38-year-old plant mechanic from Glasgow is believed to have lost his life after jumping over a wall and falling down a steep hillside during a night out with his stag do friends.

A search for him was launched on May 28 and his parents and girlfriend Nicole Kelso flew to the Algarve to help with the efforts to find him.

Around four hours before Greg's body was found by police, another young British tourist was found dead behind a steep drop at the back of a residential block by Albufeira's Old Town.

The 21-year-old, also said to have gone out drinking with pals and thought to have become disorientated as he tried to get back to his hotel, was never named.

News of his death only emerged three days after Greg was found dead.

In July last year British friends King Edonmi, 29 and Mo Lisau, 27, were discovered lifeless in their Albufeira hotel pool.

Portuguese police sources subsequently said ahead of post-mortems they believed the design of the pool combined with the fact they couldn't swim had likely led to their deaths.