The British tourist who drowned on holiday in Colombia on Sunday has been named locally as James Michael Winkles.

Colombian media, citing municipal authorities, named the 30-year-old as the holidaymaker who died during an early-hours dip off the Caribbean port city of Cartagena.

Harrowing footage published locally alongside photos of James, showed a woman crouching over his body by the shoreline and weeping.

James had reportedly travelled to Cartagena to get married, although officials have not yet confirmed whether any wedding ceremony had yet taken place.

The 30-year-old is said to have arrived in Colombia on March 9, with local authorities saying he was staying at a hotel in a popular tourist peninsula and residential neighbourhood called El Laguito where the tragedy happened.

The alarm was raised around 7am on Sunday and the Brit holidaymaker was pronounced dead at the scene after failed efforts by emergency responders to revive him.

Sea conditions at the time he went into the water were described as rough.

An investigation into the tragedy was ongoing on Monday, although the tourist’s death has been described as accidental.

His body has been taken to a city forensic medicine institute so a post-mortem can take place.

A spokesperson for the UK’s foreign office told the Daily Mail: ‘We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Colombia.’

In January two British tourists cheated death after the sailing boat they were on was hit by a cargo vessel near Cartagena and sunk.

Colombian naval officers went to the rescue of the holidaymakers and 18 others on board the boat after they managed to save themselves by jumping into emergency life rafts following the early-hours collision as the captain sounded a Mayday alert.

Their rescuers published video footage at the time showing them helping the stricken travellers to safety and taking them to dry land where they were checked over by doctors.

Miraculously, all survived unharmed despite the near-tragedy.

The tourists were thought to have been nearing the end of a five-day, four-night tour from Panama to Colombia starting in the San Blas Islands, a stunning Caribbean archipelago off Panama’s coast.

The boat was not officially named, but Italian skipper Rudolf Gamberoni who spoke after the drama to thank rescuers for saving them takes thrill-seekers on regular trips between the two countries on a New Zealand-built classic topsail schooner sailboat called Alessandra.

The voyage is billed online to potential international travellers as a pirate trip and Alessandra is described as a Hollywood star in promotional material because it featured in the iconic 1994 film Legends of the Fall whose cast included Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Julia Ormond.

Navy chiefs confirmed after the near-tragedy those on board included two British nationals, six Germans, four French people, two Swiss, three Colombians, and three others from Italy, Belgium and Turkey.