A woman is
feared drowned after she was swept out to the Atlantic Ocean during a
religious ceremony honouring a goddess of the sea in the middle of a
heavy storm.
The 34-year-old was one of
four people who were taken away by a wave on the Costa Nova beach in
central Portugal on Thursday night while the coast was lashed by strong
winds and huge waves, local officials said.
Three people managed to make it back to land but the woman has not been seen since.
An Afro-Brazilian follower of Candomblé religion partakes in the goddess of the sea ceremony (file photo)
Portuguese
media said the four were part of a group of ten people who ignored
warnings to stay away from the coast because of the rough weather and
held a ceremony in honour of Iemanja, an Afro-Brazilian goddess of the
sea.
Candles, fresh fruit, necklaces and a
box with two pairs of shoes were found near spot where the group had
gathered, daily newspaper Jornal de Noticias reported.
'We
are determining what happened. What we know is that ten people were
gathered and four were swept up by a wave. Despite all the warnings,
this situation occurred,' Carlos Jose Isabel, commander of the nearby
port of Aveiro who is leading the search effort, told reporters.
Devotees celebrate Iemanja, the
supreme deity in the Candomble religion, every February 2 by wearing
white and sending flowers out into the ocean/
Devotees
celebrate Iemanja, the supreme deity in the Candomble religion, every
February 2 by wearing white and sending flowers out into the ocean for
good luck.
Portugal counts an estimated
1,000 followers of the faith, which came to the country via its former
colony Brazil - although officials say it is difficult to know exactly
how many worshippers there are.
Most of
Portugal's coast was on 'red alert', the weather office's highest alert
level, on Thursday because of large waves, heavy rain and strong
winds.
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