A man has been found dead after an accident believed to have involved a floating inflatable and a remote-control boat on a south-west Sydney river.
The 26-year-old was on a family day out at the Georges River near Campbelltown when tragedy struck about 3pm today.
A search of the Kentlyn Basin in the Keith Longhurst Reserve was launched when he failed to surface but duty officer Inspector Paul Kremer confirmed police divers found his body about four hours later.
“So the circumstances as I understand them, is he was on a float of some description,” he said.
“A remote boat was being used in the vicinity, and that’s impacted with the float and caused the float to deflate.
“And then what’s happened has happened.”
Kremer said it was believed the man didn’t know how to swim and was on “like a lilo or something to that effect”.
“It’s a terrible thing. It’s a very terrible thing,” he said.
“We’ve got family here who have witnessed it, you know, so they’re in all sorts of distress.”
The basin is a popular swimming spot but is unpatrolled, has no phone signal and is located in remote bushland that takes a 45-minute hike to reach.
Kremer issued a warning for those who weren’t strong swimmers to stick to patrolled areas.
“Particularly if you are not a strong swimmer or don’t know how to swim, swimming in places and waterholes like this one that are unpatrolled, a very bad idea,” he said.
“[It’s] much preferred that if you wanted to go for a swim to cool off on the hot days like we’re having, to go somewhere that’s patrolled with a lifeguard: council pools, beaches with patrols, that sort of thing.”
Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
