The 30-year-old tourist, named Ivan, was enjoying some time on Kassandra beach when a strong current swept him out to sea, local media reported. As he drifted away, his friends tried to alert the coastguard, but it was too late – they couldn’t find him.
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Luckily for Ivan, who was visiting from North Macedonia, he was saved when he spotted a small soccer ball floating towards him and managed to latch onto it. Story continues below ad He spent 18 hours at sea before rescuers pulled him from the water on Sunday, Serbian news site Telegraf reported. Amazingly, the ball that Ivan used to survive has been traced back to a couple of Greek kids who were playing with the ball 10 days earlier on the Greek island of Lemnos. The children lost the ball when it ended up in the ocean and was washed away by the tide.
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What’s even more amazing is that the ball was launched almost 130 kilometers in that time, before it converged on a desperate Ivan. Trending Stories
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According to Romanian media outlet Stiridiaspora, Ivan was spotted by a Hellenic Air Force helicopter searching for him and another friend, who remains missing. Mayor Kassandra Anastasia Halkia shared a photo posing with the ball next to Ivan’s father outside a hospital. He also visited a recovering Ivan in hospital. “I have been kept updated on the progress of the rescue and I am very happy for the smooth end of the young man’s adventure,” she wrote in a translated post. Story continues below ad He wrote that rescuers are still searching for the other missing person, Martin Jovanovsky. According to Telegraf, Martin’s brother Goran will arrive in Greece on Friday to help search for his missing brother. Goran said on the way out that he would “move heaven and earth” to find his brother and “mobilize everything necessary.” Several vessels of the Hellenic Coast Guard, a helicopter, as well as a land vehicle and local volunteers are participating in the investigation. 1:03Video shows the moment a teenager was rescued after allegedly spending 49 days at sea Previous Video Next Video © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
