12-year-old surf lifesaver rescues boy

A 12-year-old surf lifesaver saved a five-year-old boy from drowning on Mt Maunganui's Main Beach over the weekend.

Cameron Turchie, a Lyall Bay surf club member, saved the boy in three-metre surf, 200 metres from shore on Sunday.

He was competing at the national ocean athletes championships, when he saw a limp, bloodied body being sucked under the water.

Cameron, who has been surf lifesaving for five years, told the Dominion Post newspaper he saw the boy swimming in heavy waves when he was caught in a rip and dragged out.

"I saw blood coming down his face and he was crying and wasn't moving that much."

Cameron swam over to the boy and held him up until lifeguards arrived in a rescue boat.

"I wasn't scared but it was hard work holding him up. I was determined not to let go."

Surf Life Saving New Zealand sport manager Mark Weatherall, who was on the beach at the time, said Cameron was "very brave to put his own life at risk".

- NZPA