One person has died following a water-related emergency north of Auckland this afternoon, the sixth drowning in Auckland in 48 hours.
Desperate beachgoers performed CPR on a man for 30 minutes until paramedics arrived at Anchor Bay, Takatu Rd, Tāwharanui.
Police confirmed someone died at the beach shortly before 2pm.
St John Ambulance sent two helicopters and two ambulances to the scene.
A witness told the Herald the man got into trouble in the water.
“Public has carried out CPR for about 30 mins (or more) before paramedics arrived. Paramedics are still busy with the man and have been for a long time now. Unsure of the current status and if the man survived or not.”
The woman said her brother was one of those who had performed CPR on the man.
Three earlier deaths occurred between late Friday afternoon and yesterday morning in Auckland, the latest a person who police described as dying in a “water incident” at a Takapuna address late Saturday morning.
The evening before a man and woman died after they were pulled unconscious from the water by bystanders within half an hour of each other at Auckland northern suburbs’ beaches Big Manly, on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, and Narrow Neck.
The alarm was raised at Narrow Neck Beach about 4.30pm when someone pointed to an “upside-down” woman about 10 metres away from him in the water and asked, ‘Is she all right?’, one rescuer told the Herald.
He turned her over and pulled her to shore, where an off-duty lifeguard and about 15 others tried to help the unresponsive woman before an ambulance arrived.
“[But] there was nothing we could do.”
Half an hour later, bystanders also pulled an unresponsive man from the water at Big Manly Beach, Manly resident Johnny Lind said.
“He was swimming and we saw, out of our window, his buttocks sticking up. We thought he may have been snorkelling, as a lot of people do that here.”
Emergency services tried to help the man, shielding him with sheets, Lind said.
“I could see he was totally white. His face was completely pale.”
Police later confirmed the man had died.
Lives have also been lost in the water in Otago and Coromandel in the last nine days.
An engaged man from Australia disappeared after trying to save a child in Lake Wakatipu near Glenorchy on Thursday, with his body found yesterday.
In a separate but similar incident at the same spot in Otago, Wanaka man Leeroy Kaaho - also known as Linkin Kisling - died week earlier.
Emergency services rushed to the mouth of the Rees River where the 48-year-old lost his life after going in to help his 10-year-old son, who survived.
On Tuesday night, a rescue helicopter found an unresponsive man after he went missing in the water at Whangamatā, the first of the week’s string of deaths - including the Cruickshank family - in Coromandel Peninsula.
Two days later a person died in a water-related incident near Coroglen, also on the peninsula.
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