Tragedy struck at Casuarina Beach in KZN yesterday afternoon after a man drowned.

According to IPSS Medical Rescue, the adult male was spotted in distress by another beachgoer who pulled him to shore.

“The man was unresponsive and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was started by lifeguards, which was taken over by our teams and Netcare 911 medics,” Kelsey Jae of IPSS Medical Rescue said.

Despite their best efforts, the man was declared dead.

Further north toward Ballito, another man was lucky to escape drowning at an unprotected beach around midday.

According to Medi Response’s Paul Herbst, the man had also gotten into difficulty with lifeguards notified and responding to the near-drowning just north of Clarke Bay.

“Lifeguards managed to pull the man from the water and he was stabilised at the beach before being taken to a hospital for further care,” Herbst said.

These incidents follow a warning by the National Sea Rescue Institute about the dangers rip currents pose to beachgoers.

“Many people find rip currents hard to see and so we have used fluorescein dye in a once-off deployment to highlight a couple of them so that we could photograph and film the dye being pulled out in the rips. We will use these photos and video as educational tools to teach beach safety,” said NSRI Wilderness station commander Mike Vonk.