‘Help, help, help’: Man recounts harrowing beach rescue in rip

A MAN has described the harrowing moments which followed a woman being pulled unconscious from the water at a beach south of Sydney.

Beachgoers responded to desperate calls for help at around 7pm on Wednesday when two women were struggling in the surf at South Cronulla beach.

The pair was pulled from the water by brave rescuers, but one of them, a woman aged in her 20s, was unconscious and received CPR from paramedics.

She was taken to St George

Hospital in a critical condition, while the second woman was transported to the same hospital in a stable condition.

A man, who did not wish to be named, told Nine’s Today show he had rescued the unconscious woman from the water after initial responders struggled to get out to her.

“We heard this screaming, ‘help, help, help’, and desperation, and I saw some people going out to save the girl,” he said.

“Obviously she was caught in a little rip … I wasn’t going to go out because there were a couple of people going, but I had a board, and they didn’t have a board, so I went out.

“By the time I got there, she was basically laying down, unconscious. I got her up on to the bodyboard.”

He became emotional as he described the aftermath of the incident on the beach, where many families were gathered

It comes as 16 people have drowned across the nation this summer, including four deaths in Victoria since Christmas Day.

They include a five-yearold girl at Victoria’s Lake Nagambie on Tuesday and two teenage cousins who were killed northwest of Tamworth in NSW, later the same day.