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Tourists Ignore Warnings, 4 Dead From ‘Powerful Wave’ in Canary Islands

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Dec 8, 2025 2:42 PM ET

On Sunday, a group of tourists in the Canary Islands reportedly snuck beneath police tape, which warned against dangerous ocean conditions, then were swept out to sea.

As a result, three of the tourists died, and another passed away later in the hospital. A “powerful wave,” per to local news, was the culprit behind the tragedy, which occurred at the popular, yet dangerous, Los Gigantes natural pool in Tenerife’s Puerto de Santiago.

The tourist attraction had been off-limits to visitors at the time, due to treacherous waters and other recent tragedies at the location; yet the tourists disobeyed the warnings, and reportedly ducked beneath the police tape to access the forbidden pool.

Mayor Navarro told a local TV station, per Metro: “All those hurt or killed were tourists. There’s a group that was younger, Slovakians and Italians, and there was another group all tourists, who had crossed the tape that had been put by local police or Civil Guard who have been working all week in this area and at other points along the coast.

“It’s impossible at times to make people understand the dangers of the ocean. The tape has to be replaced several times a day in some cases because it gets broken and people even insult police because they don’t want to leave.”

The victims in the most recent mass drowning were pulled from the water via helicopter.

And this comes after very recent, similar incidents at this exact same spot.

First, a group of tourists were caught on camera being swept across a rocky cliff by a large rogue wave, after they ignored warnings, with calls for “reckless behavior.” Then, just a month ago, another three people died on Tenerife due to dangerous, large surf conditions.

Besides tourists disregarding warnings for deadly ocean conditions, the Canaries are known as a popular, often heavy water surfing destination. And on the surfing front, most recently, a tourist couple was attacked by a local surfer, armed with rocks in each hand.

Tough news for the Canaries, of late.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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