A 44-year-old Tongaat resident, his son (14) and their family dog drowned at La Mercy beach at midday today.

The deceased’s 18-year-old son was the only one to survive.

He was able to swim to the rocks and get to safety.

“According to fishermen, the family were swimming for a few minutes when they were swept out to sea,” said Prem Balram of Reaction Unit SA (RUSA).

In an apparent rescue attempt, the family dog followed them into the sea and was later found to have drowned with its leash still attached.

La Mercy resident Mohammed Haffajee witnessed the drowning from the garden of his house above the beach.

“We could see something was happening so me and my cousin went down to see if we could help. But by this time the two people were already about 50 meters out to sea,” said Haffajee.

The waves brought the body of the father to the beach and the two men pulled him out.

“We tried chest compressions but it was already too late, the man was dead,” he said.

The fishermen called paramedics and RUSA at 12:18pm.

The body of the son was not immediately visible, but was found after a short helicopter search by RUSA.

“A RUSA officer swam out to get the son who was unfortunately already deceased,” said Netcare 911 spokesperson, Shawn Herbst.