Four French nationals drowned yesterday and one was missing after their yacht capsized off Morocco’s Mediterranean coast due to bad weather conditions, a French diplomat in Rabat said.

The accident took place near the resort of Saidia, next to the Algerian border, with four bodies recovered, and a “small glimmer of hope remaining” for the fifth person on board the catamaran, the source said.

The captain of the 13-metre yacht, headed from Marseille to the Caribbean via Brazil, was experienced but weather conditions in Morocco’s northeast have been “very poor” this week, the diplomat added.

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