Body recovered of missing rock climber (27)

Olivia Kelleher

A body has been recovered in the search for a young rock climber missing off the coast of Baltimore in Co Cork.

The 27-year-old Italian man was climbing at Fox’s Cliff at Eastern Hole in Baltimore Harbour yesterday evening.

The alarm was raised by his girlfriend at 8.30pm yesterday after she became concerned when she was unable to contact him by phone.

A search of the area was carried out last night. It was halted at 1am on Friday.

It subsequently resumed at 6am today, and involved two Coastguard Helicopters, Rescue 115 from Shannon and Rescue 117 from Waterford, the RNLI from Baltimore, along with the Civil Defence drone team and gardai. Local fisherman also became involved in the search.

A body was recovered by a local diver earlier this morning. His family members have been informed of the tragedy.

Climbing gear belonging to the man was found on the sea cliffs at about 11.30pm yesterday. This assisted the team in pinpointing a particular area of the water to search this morning.

A spokesperson for Baltimore RNLI has confirmed that the search has now been called off. The rock climber had been living in the northside of Cork city.

The local Coroner has been informed of the tragedy. The body of the deceased has been taken to Cork University Hospital, where a postmortem examination will be carried out.

An inquest will be held in due course.

It is not known at this juncture if a funeral for the deceased man will be held in this country or if his remains will be repatriated to Italy for burial.