MELBOURNE, Oct 23 (NNN-AAP) – Two men drowned, after being swept into the ocean, in south-east Melbourne, amid severe winds that hit the Australian state of Victoria, yesterday.
Police today said, one of the two men was a British national, who was surfing in extreme conditions, and the other was his friend, who tried to rescue him.
Victoria Police said in a statement that, emergency services were called to reports of two men in trouble in the water at Frankston Beach, 38 km south-east of central Melbourne, yesterday afternoon.
The two men were located unresponsive in the water, by a police helicopter and winched back to shore, but could not be revived.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) yesterday morning issued a severe weather warning for destructive winds, for almost the entirety of Victoria. Maximum wind speeds exceeded 120 km per hour, in the state’s south-west and 90 km per hour in Melbourne.
The State Emergency Service said today that, it responded to more than 1,400 requests for help yesterday, the majority of which related to trees that had fallen across roads and properties.– NNN-AAP
