The mayor of Santiago del Teide, Emilio Navarro, has revealed this Monday that bathers continue to visit the El Tancón cave despite the last fatal accident that occurred there, last Thursday, and the announcement of the toughening of sanctions. In statements to Cope, Navarro has said that the day after a young man lost his life and three other people were rescued, one in critical condition, and when the Civil Guard was investigating the area, there were those who bypassed the precincts or accessed this attractive but dangerous place by sea or by other roads. Two days later, he added, this bufadero, where five people have lost their lives in the last four years, “was full.”
Five deaths in four years in the paradisiacal puddle of Tancón
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The mayor has reported that it is common for visitors to ask merchants or businessmen in the area about El Tancón, because “it is not easy to find it”, and when they warn them that it is dangerous “they come to insult them.”
From the City Council of Santiago del Teide they believe “little more” they can do, since the area is already signposted, with warnings of prohibition of passage and risks of drowning and landslides, and now with the announced tougher sanctions if the Local Police surprise bathers there.
The mayor has also pointed out that before there were installed some doors that prevented the passage to the area when there was a forecast of bad seas, but that the General Directorate of Coasts prohibited them. Instead, beacons are placed, but “people keep passing by, taking unnecessary risk in these natural and dangerous spaces.”
“It is very difficult to have a policeman on every corner,” wielded the mayor, who called for “social responsibility”. “We do not want to create fear, it is that there is an imminent danger,” says the mayor of Santiago del Teide, who has attributed the fame of El Tancón to social networks.
