Four dead in NSW as monster swells claim another life

A fourth person has died in dangerous surf conditions along the NSW coastline this Easter long weekend, while a multi-agency search is yet to find a man missing off a Sydney beach.

The weather bureau warned the swells on Easter Saturday were still up to 3.5 metres high and would not ease until Sunday in the central and southern parts of the state and would persist in northern NSW.

The latest death was at Tathra on the far South Coast. Police said a rock fisherman was swept into the sea at Kianinny Bay near Kangarutha Walking Track at 8.15am on Saturday morning.

A search found a body in the water at 10.40am, which is believed to be that of the man.

The search resumed on Saturday for the missing man washed off rocks near Little Bay on Friday.Credit: Steven Siewert

In Sydney, Marine Area Command, PolAir, Surf Life Saving NSW, Marine Rescue NSW, Ambulance paramedics and Randwick Council lifeguards, spent Saturday searching for a 24-year-old man missing at Little Bay Beach in Sydney’s south-east.

He was walking on rocks with friends just before 1pm on Friday when he was swept into the sea by a large wave and did not resurface. The search is expected to resume when light returns on Sunday morning.

A sign at Little Bay paints a grim picture.Credit: Steven Siewert

The dangerous surf also claimed three other lives in NSW on Friday – those of a 58-year-old fisherman at Wollongong Harbour, a man who may have fallen into the harbour at Mosman, and a fisherman swept off the rocks at Eden on the far South Coast of NSW. In Victoria, one woman died, and another man is missing after being swept into the sea in San Remo on Friday.

The weather bureau has a hazardous surf warning out for the entire NSW coastline because of a coastal storm moving across the Tasman Sea.

Many beaches across Sydney were closed on Saturday. Some of those that remained open included Bondi, Clovelly (access from beach only), Shelly Beach at Manly, and beaches in Botany Bay, Sydney Harbour and Pittwater.

Helen Reid, a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, said on Saturday morning the waves were still as high as 3 to 3.5 metres at the buoy off Sydney’s coast. On Good Friday, they were as high as four metres with a long duration of about 14 seconds, she said.

The weather was expected to stay sunny and warm throughout NSW for most of the weekend, and showers were expected for Easter Monday.

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