Search resumes for missing beachgoers after KZN rip current tragedy
A major search operation is set to resume on Saturday for four beachgoers reported missing after they were caught in rip currents on the KZN south coast.
The National Sea Rescue Institute has described the incident at Pennington Beach as a mass-casualty drowning.
Emergency teams were alerted on New Year's Day after a group of bathers was swept out to sea.
"During ongoing search efforts on Friday, it was determined that there are three males, believed to all be aged 21, still missing,” says NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon.
"Then during ongoing search efforts on Friday, an 18-year-old female was located sadly deceased on the beach at Bazley Beach. It was determined by police that [she] had also gone missing at Pennington Beach during the drowning incident on New Year’s Day in the early evening."
Lambinon says two men, aged 21 also lost their lives while an 18-year-old girl was pulled from the water unharmed.
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Meanwhile, he says a good Samaritan rescued teenage boy in distress at a beach in Umkomaas on Friday.
"On arrival on the scene we found [that] a 16-year-old male had been rescued by an unidentified male good Samaritan. He was not injured.
"The teenager’s brother, age 21, remained missing in the surf zone. Despite an extensive sea and shoreline search there remains no signs of the missing man.
"Police Search and Rescue are tasked to continue in [the] ongoing search efforts. It appears that the brothers, from Dlangezwa in KZN, were swimming when they were caught in strong rip currents."
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