A man that went missing after he went for a swim at the West Flemish coast resort of Ostend has been found safe and well in his home city of Aalst. However, the mayor of Ostend Bart Tommelein (liberal) says that when the man was found he was “without his clothes and without his possessions”. Mr Tommelein says that the disappearance raises questions about “some people’s sense of responsibility”. The mayor of Ostend feels that its unacceptable that a large-scale search and rescue operation was launched unnecessarily.
Man that went missing in Ostend found almost naked and devoid of his possessions almost 100km away in Aalst
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While the 41-year-old man from Aalst (East Flanders) was swimming in the sea on Sunday evening his friends lost sight of him and contacted the emergency services. They launched a search for the many both in the sea and on the beach and the seafront. The search ended at around 11pm as it was dark.
The search was restarted early on Monday morning. However, this proved to be no longer necessary as the man had been found safe and well in Aalst. The Mayor of Ostend told VRT News that the man was “naked and without his possessions”.
Telephone call
The 41-year-old is a Ukrainian national. After his swim he decided to take the train back to Aalst dressed only in a pair of wet trunks. As no tickets were checked on board the train, he remained unnoticed. When he arrived in Aalst he contacted his friends using a mobile phone lent to him by a passer-by. However, his friends, aged 30 and 63, only informed the police that he was safe after the search and rescue operation had been halted.
Timmy Van Assche of the Ostend Local Police Service told VRT News that “They could have done this sooner”. Nevertheless, he believes that mounting a search a rescue operation was the right decision.
"With hindsight it is always easy to say that something like this was unnecessary, but reports of this nature are always taken seriously. Those that reported this had seen their friend go into the water and had not seen him come out again.”