Two men drowned in waters off Frankston in Melbourne’s south-east

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Victoria police say one of the two men who died in rough waters at a beach in Melbourne’s south-east yesterday afternoon had been attempting to rescue his friend in the wild conditions.

Transcript

00:00Police are still trying to piece together what unfolded on the Franks and Foreshore behind me

00:06late yesterday afternoon. A 36 year old British national was surfing in the waters at the time

00:12when his surfboard cracked in half and his 43 year old friend who was standing on the pier

00:16has jumped into those waters to try and save him. This all unfolded in front of onlookers

00:22who phoned 000. The police air wing was called to try and winch the men to safety. Unfortunately,

00:27they were found unconscious and died at the scene. We've just heard from inspector Mel Nixon who said

00:33that one police officer was also taken to hospital for minor injuries. Here's a little bit of what she

00:38had to say. The tactical operator has actually suffered a large amount of water intake. These

00:44people are very highly experienced and do these operations regularly and unfortunately as a result

00:52he's been injured and taken to the Franksland hospital. He's okay, he's gone home. But putting

00:58people, yourselves, putting members of the public, emergency services in such a risky position,

01:07you've got to think about what you're doing. The weather conditions were yesterday obviously

01:12not appropriate to be in the water surfing, whether you're experienced or you're not experienced.

01:16This all unfolded during an afternoon of destructive winds across Melbourne. Gusts of up to 130

01:22kilometres per hour were recorded. The SES received 1,500 calls for help, most of those

01:28for trees down as the city recovers from a battering yesterday afternoon.

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