Day at the beach turns into tragedy after George man drowns

A man has drowned at the Gwaing River Mouth near George in the Western Cape.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) received reports of a person being trouble in the water at 15:11 on Saturday. They responded with two rescue craft as well as swimmers, and alerted emergency personnel.

Once on the scene, a search commenced for the 33-year-old man who had disappeared under the water while swimming, said NSRI Wilderness station commander Garth Dominy.

"It appears that while a group of people were enjoying a day at the beach one member of the group got into difficulty when he was caught in rip currents during a receding tide," Dominy said.

NSRI rescue swimmers were deployed into the water to conduct a sweeping line free dive search while a surface water and shoreline search progressed.

"A police dive unit was activated. During the search, NSRI rescue swimmers located the body of the man under water and the body was recovered to the shore," Dominy said.

He was pronounced dead once on shore. Police have opened an inquest docket.