Snorkeller missing in WA as NSW authorities continue search for two lost in rough surf | Western Australia
Rescuers are searching for a missing snorkeler off the coast of a small town in Western Australia, as authorities in New South Wales continue to search for two men who disappeared in treacherous surf over the new year.
WA police said a 32-year-old man was reported missing while snorkelling at Ledge Point Beach, about 105 kilometers north of Perth, about 3pm on Thursday afternoon.
Sea Rescue vessels, jet skis, police air wing officers and divers joined the search for the man; Search efforts continued on Friday morning along the beach and coastline, as well as in the water.
The search continued in NSW on Friday for a Nepalese man reported missing from Sydney’s Coogee Beach in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Sign up: AÜ Breaking News email
Emergency services were called to the beach at around 6am after reports of a man in trouble in the water.
Coogee Surf Life Saving Club president Ben Heenan said on Thursday the man was one of four people who decided to swim at the beach early in the morning but were knocked off their feet and swept out to sea by a “massive rip”.
“They tried to get back to shore and needed help,” Heenan said.
“Three managed to reach shore. Unfortunately, one could not return. We immediately started searching.”
Coastal patrols are also continuing to search for a 14-year-old boy who went missing after a boat capsized in Palm Beach, north of Sydney.
Two men and a child were on board when the ship capsized in difficult conditions around 11.35am on New Year’s Eve, near Barrenjoey headland.
One man was pulled from the water by surf lifeguards and treated by paramedics, but died at the scene.
A second man managed to climb nearby rocks before being pulled to safety by a rescue helicopter and taken to hospital.
Three more people died in separate incidents in waters off the east coast this week; these included an Irish man at Whitehaven beach near the Great Barrier Reef, a 25-year-old woman who was swept into the ocean from a Sydney beach, and a 45-year-old woman at Dunbogan beach near Port Macquarie on the mid-north coast of NSW.
During the New Year period, dangerous waves pounded the beach due to strong winds blowing from the south.
Earlier on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology canceled the dangerous surf warning imposed on New Year’s Day for Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Coffs Harbor and Byron Bay. The high wind warning for Eden Coast remains current.
Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said all the drownings occurred in “really dangerous surf conditions”.
“In most of these incidents, beaches were closed,” Pearce told ABC News Breakfast on Friday. “And these are all in places where there are no patrols. That means that in places where there are no lifeguards or lifeguards on duty, it’s actually left up to the public to try to help in the first place.”
“I think people need to be conscious and take some responsibility for their own personal safety.”
Surf Lifesaving NSW advised people to swim only on patrolled beaches and between red and yellow flags.
“We’re really pleading with people, if you’re going to go to the beaches and go on vacation for the rest of the summer, it’s very important that you find a place where there are lifeguards and lifeguards on duty,” Pearce said.
“Every drowning in the last 12 months [has] “I was in areas without patrols, away from red and yellow flags, away from areas with skilled and trained lifeguards and lifeguards.”
