Police warn swimmers after five drowning deaths
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Version 0 of 1. Frustrated police have begged holidaymakers to take care in the water after five men drowned in two days in New South Wales. Sergeant Paul Farquharson of the NSW police marine area command said emergency services were stretched to the limit and police divers had been busy for days. There are fears the drowning toll will rise as increasing temperatures send holidaymakers flocking to beaches and rivers. “What we’d ask is that people assess their environment, look at the water that they’re entering,” Farquharson told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday. “If they can’t swim, don’t go in.” On Tuesday morning the body of a 25-year-old man was recovered from water at Greendale in western Sydney. He went missing on Boxing Day while swimming with friends at a Nepean river waterhole within the Bents Basin state conservation area. Also on Monday 60-year-old Geoffrey Blackadder died trying to rescue young relatives from a rip at Wooli beach on the NSW north coast. A 56-year-old man drowned at Merry beach at Kioloa on the NSW south coast. A 27-year-old man died at Kangaroo Valley in the Shoalhaven region during a Boxing Day swim at a picnic ground. On Christmas Day a 27-year-old man drowned in the Wattamolla lagoon at the Royal national park, south of Sydney. Reports released this month by the Royal Life Saving Society and Surf Life Saving Australia show the vast majority of people who drown at Australian beaches or while using boats or watercraft are males. Alcohol and drugs are listed as common contributing factors. Farquharson would not comment on whether alcohol played a part in any of the recent drownings, but said men sometimes placed themselves at more risk in the water. “We would encourage them to look at their consumption of alcohol and their behaviour [if swimming],” he said. Also on Tuesday, three men were rescued after their boat overturned while they were checking crab pots south of Perth. Water police and the volunteer marine rescue saved the trio, who were in waters west of Mandurah, about 8am on Tuesday. St John Ambulance officers in Mandurah would assess them, police said. |