Emergency services have suspended separate searches for a teenage boy and a male swimmer in waters off Sydney, following a deadly New Year period along Australia's eastern coastline. On Sunday, New South Wales police confirmed that search and rescue operations had been called off for a 16-year-old boy who was a passenger in a boat that capsized off Palm Beach on New Year's Eve. A 47-year-old man died in that incident.
A separate search for a 22-year-old man, identified as Sushan Khadka, who went missing at Coogee beach on New Year's Day, has also been suspended. Police stated that despite extensive land and water-based searches, Khadka could not be found. The president of Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, Ben Heenan, said several swimmers had been swept off their feet by a rip due to large surf, with three able to return to shore but one unable to.
The suspensions come after six people died at beaches across Australia during the New Year period. On Saturday, a 34-year-old man drowned at Green Patch beach in Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast. On Friday, a man in his 50s was pulled from the water at Lobster Bay beach in Shoalhaven but died at the scene. Earlier, a 25-year-old woman was found dead on New Year's Day after being swept into the ocean at Maroubra beach, and a 45-year-old woman, identified as mother-of-two Melissa Austin, died at Dunbogan beach near Port Macquarie.
On New Year's Eve, a 35-year-old Irish man died at Whitehaven beach near the Great Barrier Reef. In the Palm Beach incident, emergency services responded to reports of a capsized boat near Barrenjoey Headland. A 47-year-old man was pulled from the water but died, while a 45-year-old man was rescued by helicopter and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The search for the 16-year-old boy, initially reported as 14, has now been suspended, though marine patrols will continue in the area. Land patrols will continue around Coogee beach.
Royal Lifesaving Australia reported that the national summer drowning toll since 1 December had reached 29 by Saturday.
