News24.com | Swimmer drowns, friend rescued at Gordon's Bay beach

• Two swimmers got into difficulty at Gordon's Bay beach on Saturday. 
• Two Johannesburg Good Samaritans had tried to save the men, but were only able to save one of the swimmers.
• In a separate incident, a swimmer drowned at the Nahoon River Mouth.

Two Good Samaritans saved a man from drowning at Gordon's Bay beach in Cape Town on Saturday - but were unable to save the man's friend.

Alan Meiklejohn, National Sea Rescue Institute station commander, said the NSRI team responded to a report that two men had run into difficulty in the surf mid break line.

JD Siecker and his girlfriend, Kim Nast, from Johannesburg, were in the water when Siecker noticed the two men in difficulty near to where they were swimming, the NSRI said. 

Siecker managed to pull one man up from underwater and get him to shore, while Nast had run down the beach to alert lifeguards. Siecker went back into the water to assist the second man, but he had disappeared underwater, Meiklejohn said. 

Siecker alerted a bystander on the beach, Neal de Wit, who contacted his friend Russel Human of the City's Disaster Risk Management, who raised the alarm.  

On arrival at the scene, the NSRI joined a lifeguard on a Malibu board to continue the search.

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Meiklejohn said during the search, the lifeless body of a 29-year-old man was located in the shallow surf. 

CPR efforts commenced on the beach.

"After all efforts to resuscitate the man were exhausted, sadly, he was declared deceased," said Meiklejohn.

Police have opened an inquest docket. The 25-year-old friend was not injured. In a separate incident at the Nahoon River Mouth in East London, a man drowned while swimming.

NSRI duty controller Geoff McGregor said lifeguards had searched for the local man, aged in his early 20s, who went missing while in the river with friends.

"During a search, the body of the man was located underwater and recovered by NSRI rescue swimmers," he said. 

The man was declared dead.

Police have opened an inquest docket.