A search for a British man who went missing after going overboard on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas four days ago has now been called off.

According to reports the young man, who has not been named, is said to have fallen from the ship in the Adriatic Sea in the early hours of Friday morning.

Initially Croatian officials said the coastguard, a drone and a plane had been searching for the man in the area of ​​the Vis archipelago.

The ship had left Ravenna, Italy on 3 August for a seven-day cruise around Greece and Croatia.

The Sun reported the search operation was extended yesterday (Sunday) but the President of the Association of Croatian Sea Captains Sanjin Dumanic said: “Since the man has been in the sea for over 40 hours, we are already losing hope.

“We would all like him to be found, but 40 hours is a very long time and we are losing hope that this search will end successfully”.

The paper added today (Monday) that the National Rescue Service in Croatia has officially called off the search.

Writing on X on Friday, passenger Nicole Bullock said: “Woken up on the cruise ship… to the emergency message ‘Oscar Oscar Oscar off the port side’.

“Man overboard. Been watching the rescue efforts off my balcony all day, hoping for a positive outcome.”

Travel Gossip has contacted Royal Caribbean for comment.