A 46 year old Portuguese passenger on a cruise ship was found dead in the sea off the coast of Corsica, announced today the hall of the Mediterranean sea.

"The victim has been identified as a Portuguese man of 46 years who had disappeared from the cruise ship  'MSC Divina'" was said in a statement, the maritime prefecture, based in Toulon.

The Passenger  had been reported missing at 01:00 yesterday.

A PUMA helicopter rescue at sea, as well as a helicopter Dragon Security Civil Ajaccio and a Falcon 50 from the French navy searches effected air in good weather.

According to the maritime prefecture, an investigation was opened to determine the circumstances of this tragic death.

Spokesman for the cruise company said that at about 0:30 a Portuguese official warned the ship authoraties that "her husband was missing", the search operation was immediately activated with coordination of relevant maritime authorities. "

"The body was recovered this morning off the coast of Corsica and currently is under formal identification procedures," added Laura Santinhos.