Police divers have discovered a body, believed to be of a 19-year-old man, who went missing while swimming at a Gold Coast waterhole on Friday.
"Members of the Police Dive Squad searching for a 19-year-old man who failed to surface while in the water at Killarney Glen Falls at Beechmont yesterday have located a man's body," police said on Saturday.
It's reported that the man was swimming upstream at the Killarney Glen waterhole in Beechmont when he got into trouble on Friday morning. It's thought he then became stuck underwater.
A man nearby at the time told the ABC that people started searching very soon after the teen disappeared, but they couldn't find him.
"As we rocked up the police and ambos and fire brigade came," he's quoted as saying.
"It's a deep water hole and it's high. You could fall off but he was in the water and went under the water and didn't come back up."
The young man's death lifts the total of water related fatalities across Australia, with that number surging in recent days. According to Sky News, there have been at least 14 water fatalities in the NSW since Christmas Day, with three deaths and two other bodies found on Friday.
In the wake of the tragedies, Surf Life Saving NSW has urged swimmers to be extra careful for the rest of the holiday period, and to be especially prudent if affected by alcohol or drugs.