Moroccan club Ittihad Tanger has informed the BBC that they are still searching for two footballers who went missing off the northern Mediterranean coast of the country on Saturday.
The incident occurred during an excursion involving five staff members from the club on a yacht rented from M’diq beach resort, located north of Tetouan city.
Emergency services successfully rescued three individuals after the yacht incident. However, senior players Abdellatif Akhrif, 24, and Salman El-Harrak, 18, remain missing.
Those rescued include Oussama Aflah, a club employee, along with Soumaimane Dahdouh and Abdelhamid Maali, a promising Morocco Under-20 international who plays with the club’s reserve team.
Ittihad Tanger’s president, Mohamed Cherkaoui, has confirmed that efforts to locate the missing players are ongoing. He also urged caution among media and social media users in disseminating information about the situation concerning Akhrif and El-Harrak.
‘We were swimming within sight of the shore’
After being rescued, Aflah spoke to Tanjaoui – a local media outlet – about what happened on Saturday afternoon.
“Everything was normal – we woke up, had breakfast and rented a boat from the marina,” he said.
“On our way out to sea, we were even stopped by the coastguard who made sure our papers were in order and that we had life jackets.
“Everything was fine and we were swimming within sight of the shore and just a few metres from the boat before the sea completely changed and heavy winds took us away from the boat.”
The club’s deputy president Anass Mrabet told Reuters the men were not wearing life jackets when they went swimming.
Ittihad Tanger have been in Morocco’s top flight since 2015 and won the league title for the first and only time in their history in the 2017-18 season.
