North Head: Search for 20-year-old Swedish student washed off Manly’s Blue Fish Point
Fears are held for a 20-year-old Swedish student Noa Sage who slipped and fell 7m onto rocks near Manly and was washed out to sea. Here’s the latest on the search.
Manly
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A search is still underway on Friday in the seas off Sydney for a missing Swedish student who was washed off rocks after falling on North Head.
Noa Sage, 20, was with a group of friends when he tumbled about 7m onto a rock platform while climbing up a cliff from the base of Blue Fish Point at about 5.30pm on Wednesday.
Northern Beaches Police were told that Mr Sage had been heading up the cliff face after the group spent time exploring the shoreline below steep cliffs near the North Head Sewage Treatment Plant.
Blue Fish Point is popular with anglers as well as backpackers and bushwalkers for its abandoned World War II military structures.
Friends told police they saw Mr Sage, in Australia on a student visa, with a bleeding head wound and lying unconscious on a rock platform after he fell.
Soon after he was washed off the rocks into the sea by the large swell and quickly disappeared from view.
It is understood that the young man may have lost his grip and fell about 7m. There are ropes and makeshift chain ladders in the vicinity where the man fell.
There are also signs, placed by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, warning about using ropes or other implements to access areas close to the shoreline and a warning about “unstable cliff edges”.
Police, using vessels from its Marine Area Command and the police helicopter, joined with the NSW Surf Life Saving and NSW Ambulance helicopters in a search on Wednesday evening.
Surf life savers on jet skis were also called into the Wednesday evening search.
The search was called off at about 8pm due to bad light and weather.
Northern Beaches Police Commander Pat Sharkey said on Thursday afternoon that the search had resumed early on Thursday morning.
Superintendent Sharkey said Mr Sage, who was staying in Sydney’s inner city, had been sightseeing with a group of people around his age.
He said police and other emergency services were called to Blue Fish Point after reports a man had fallen from a cliff face and was then washed into the ocean.
“Unfortunately he was unable to be found by 8pm last night when the search was called off due to the fading light and weather,” he said.
“The search was resumed at about 7am this morning and at this stage the search is continuing, however the male has not been found.
“Police believe the male is a 20-year-old Swedish national who is currently in Australia on a student visa.
“Consular officials have been advised and police have been briefed that the family of the male will arrive in Sydney in the near future.”
Supt Sharkey said police believe the missing student was at Blue Fish Point sightseeing with a group of friends.
“He was climbing on a rock face,” he said.
“We are led to believe it’s an unofficial trail that they were climbing on and he has fallen by some form of misadventure and then been washed into the ocean.”
The man’s friends have each given statements to police and have been offered welfare and counselling.
Supt Sharkey said conditions for the marine search had been difficult due to large swell and high winds.
He said that National Parks also have signs urging sightseers to stick to marked trails.
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