Body Found After 17 Hours of Searching Sihwa Lake... Identity of Missing Man While Swimming Unconfirmed

Coast Guard Finds Unidentified Female Body on Sihwa Lake Shore

A body was found on a nearby beach 17 hours after a missing person report was filed at Sihwa Lake in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, prompting the Coast Guard to launch an investigation.

On the 26th, the Pyeongtaek Coast Guard and the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters recovered the unidentified female body at around 10:33 a.m. along the Sihwa Lake coastline in Seonggok-dong, Danwon-gu, Ansan City.

Earlier, at 5:29 p.m. the previous day, a passerby reported to 112 that "a man was swimming" near Bandalseom Island in Sihwa Lake. However, when the police and fire authorities arrived at the scene, the man was not found.

The Pyeongtaek Coast Guard, along with fire authorities and civilian rescue teams, conducted a maritime search for the missing person until 9 p.m. the previous day but suspended the operation due to weather conditions. The search resumed the following morning, and 17 hours after the initial report, the unidentified body was discovered.

However, the Coast Guard stated that unlike the initial report, the body found that day was confirmed to be female, and further investigation is needed to determine whether it is the same person who was seen at sea the previous day.

The Pyeongtaek Coast Guard is analyzing CCTV footage and tracking the movements of the individual seen the previous day to identify the person, but as of the afternoon of the same day, the identity has not been confirmed. The location where the body was found is approximately 500 meters from Bandalseom Island, where the missing person was last seen.

The Pyeongtaek Coast Guard plans to verify the personal details of both the recovered body and the individual seen at sea the previous day to determine if they are the same person.