Rio police investigate body in hunt for missing Australian

RIO DE JANEIRO: Police in Rio de Janeiro said Friday they are investigating whether a body reported floating out at sea is that of an Australian backpacker who vanished two weeks ago.

Rye Hunt, 25, disappeared May 21 from the Copacabana beach area, which will host several events during the Olympics in August. Police say he had taken powerful drugs and was suffering a psychotic episode.

There has been no confirmation of what happened to him after he took a taxi from Rio’s international airport to a short-term rental apartment in Copacabana during a tour of South America.

Hunt’s family, which flew to Rio to join the search, said police were now probing the discovery of a body.

“A body has been sighted eight kilometres (five miles) offshore from Copacabana Beach,” the family said in a statement. “The local authorities have initiated a search in the region. However, no body has been recovered at this point.”

A fisherman had alerted the navy early Wednesday after “seeing a body with clothing similar to that used by Rye Hunt on the day of his disappearance,” Rio police said.

Searches began immediately and were continuing, they added.

Earlier this week, police revealed that a different fisherman said he had seen Hunt on a tiny uninhabited island just a short distance off the beach. Hunt told him he had swum there, the fisherman said. — AFP