Croatian divers located a fourth Czech national who died after a French-registered sailboat and a large catamaran met at sea in the central Adriatic. The accident occurred between the islands of Brač and Šolta while the passenger vessel carried more than 100 people.
Split harbour master Željko Kustera said the missing victim was found inside the sunken sailboat. Interior Ministry divers reached the wreck on Sunday evening at a depth exceeding 50 metres. Kustera cautioned that raising the vessel and recovering the person would be a demanding operation requiring careful preparation; he did not announce when it would begin.
Eight Czech nationals had been aboard the yacht. Three died immediately, while four were pulled from the water. Split hospital said three survivors sustained minor injuries. A fourth remained hospitalized with a serious spinal injury. The supplied report did not identify any of the victims or provide a later medical update.
The catamaran carried 118 passengers and seven crew members and was run by a private Croatian company. No one on that vessel was injured. The source did not name either craft, describe their speed or course, or explain what happened in the moments before contact.
Croatia’s office for investigating air, maritime and rail transport accidents opened work on the case and notified authorities in France and the Czech Republic. Those contacts reflected the sailboat’s French registration and the nationality of the people aboard it. The reason for the collision remained unknown on Monday.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković offered condolences to bereaved families and to Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. His statement addressed the national impact of an accident involving foreign visitors but did not provide findings about responsibility.
The casualty count rose from three to four only after divers found the person previously missing with the submerged boat. That distinction matters: the fourth death was not a new hospital fatality but confirmation of the outcome of the search. Recovery remained separate from locating the victim because of the depth and technical difficulty.
Investigators would need navigation records, vessel inspections, witness statements and other maritime evidence before determining why the two craft converged. None of those results was included in the early report. The supported account is therefore confined to the people aboard, the deaths and injuries, the location of the wreck and the start of a multinationally notified inquiry. Any assignment of fault to either crew or operator would be premature. The investigative office had informed the relevant foreign authorities, but the source gave no schedule for preliminary findings or for completing the technically difficult recovery.
