Search goes on for Moroccan footballers lost at sea

Moroccan club Ittihad Tanger has told the BBC that the search continues for two footballers who went missing off the country's northern Mediterranean coast on Saturday.

Five staff members from the top-flight side were taking part in an excursion on a yacht rented from the beach resort of M'diq, north of the city of Tetouan.

Emergency services rescued three people after the incident.

Oussama Aflah, Soumaimane Dahdouh and Abdelhamid Maali were given medical treatment, having been out at sea for several hours.

Aflah is a club employee, while Dahdouh and Maali are considered promising young players with the reserve team.

Senior players Abdellatif Akhrif and Salman El-Harrak are the two men missing.

Ittihad Tanger’s president Mohamed Cherkaoui confirmed that the “search for the missing players is still ongoing.”

He also asked members of the media and fans on social media to continue to be careful with information they share concerning the pair.

After his experience, Aflah spoke to Tanjaoui, a local media outlet, about exactly 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 news agency that the men were not wearing their 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.