The body of a French man who went missing over the weekend while diving at Tintipan Island in the Colombian Caribbean, was found after after a 78-hour search and rescue operation conducted by the navy.
Forty-year-old Aool Andre allegedly exceeded the depth limits for diving, the navy said in a statement and disappeared on Sunday (December 29).
Andre's body was found to the north of Tintipan Island, on opposite poles from the site he went missing from, due to winds and sea currents.
His body was taken to the town of Tolu in the Colombian department of Sucre and was handed over to prosecutors who will file all the necessary paperwork, according to local media.
Andre's family and friends told the navy, he was a seasoned professional diver.
"We know it's Aool Andre, a French citizen who was on holiday in Colombia, specifically in the San Bernardo Archipelago and that he practised nautical sports and had experience in these types of diving sports and with apnea. That is what we know. His relatives are over here. He was with his girlfriend and his best friend," said Captain Adelmo Dam, who heads the coast guard operation in the Caribbean.
The Island is part of the San Bernardo archipelago and is located in the Gulf of Morrosquillo, 50 kilometres (31 miles) to the southeast of Cartagena city.
