Disabled French swimmer spans Europe and Africa

RABAT: Frenchman Philippe Croizon, who has lost all of his limbs, continued his quest to swim between all the continents on Thursday by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, an organiser said.

"He has just reached the rock on the Ciress beach near Tangiers, having swum 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) from Tarifa in five hours and 20 minutes," Anne Bayard, one of the organisers of Croizon's project, told AFP.

Completing the stretch between Tarifa in southern Spain and Tangiers in northern Morocco was the third leg of a challenge Croizon set himself after swimming the English Channel in 2010 to highlight the abilities of disabled people, and to convey a message of peace and solidarity.

His challenge to swim between continents began on May 17, when he crossed from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia.

In June, he swam between Africa and Asia, setting across the Red Sea from Egypt's Taba resort and arriving more than five hours later in the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

In August he plans on swimming between the islands of Big Diomede in Russia and Little Diomede in the United States.

Croizon had to have all four limbs amputated after he suffered an electric shock of more than 20,000 volts in 1994 as he tried to remove a TV antenna from a roof.

He uses flippers attached to prosthetic limbs to accomplish the challenge and is always accompanied by fellow French swimmer Arnaud Chassery. (AFP)