Portugal's National Maritime Authority confirmed the 23 year old vanished on Thursday while swimming with a 19 year old man, also from the UK, at Peneco Beach in Albufeira, on Portugal's southern coastline.

Portuguese police revealed that a body, believed to be that of the missing man, was retrieved on Tuesday afternoon off the Albufeira coast.

"Following an alert at 6.37 pm from a fisherman in the vicinity, officers from the Portimao Local Maritime Police Command, the Albufeira Volunteer Firefighters' Humanitarian Association and the Albufeira Municipal Civil Protection Service were mobilised," Portuguese police said in a statement.

"On arrival at the scene, members of the Maritime Police, in collaboration with the Fire Brigade, transported the victim to Albufeira Marina."

A local Maritime Police official said: "Death was confirmed at the scene and, following contact with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the body was transported by the Fire Brigade to the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the Western Algarve.

"The British Consulate in Portimao was contacted and informed of the incident.

"The Maritime Police's Portimao Local Command took charge of the incident."

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been contacted for comment.

According to the National Maritime Authority, a search operation was launched following the man's disappearance last Friday.

The 19 year old British national who was with the 23 year old "apparently managed to get out of the water by his own means to seek help after which the other one disappeared".