Woman in her 20s drowns while heroically trying to save a distressed teenager - the third swimming death in the same area in just four hours
A young woman has tragically drowned while frantically trying to rescue another swimmer after a horror afternoon on Victoria's waters.
The woman aged in her 20s had rushed to help a teenage girl struggling in the water at Venus Bay in the Gippsland region around 7.30pm on Wednesday night.
She also got into difficulty in the water and had to be dragged to shore by an off-duty lifeguard, where she died despite desperate efforts to save her.
The woman was one of three drownings within four hours across Victoria on Wednesday with another five swimmers hospitalised.
The death toll would have been higher if it wasn't for the desperate efforts of lifeguards who saved a number of swimmers' lives across the state.
A woman aged in her 20s drowned at Venus Bay in the Gippsland region on Wednesday night
Another woman, 45, drowned four hours earlier after she was one of four swimmers swept off the rocks at Bushrangers Bay in the Mornington Peninsula around 3.30pm on Wednesday.
Two members of the public entered the water to help them.
Police Air Wing, Westpac Rescue Helicopter and Air Ambulance were dispatched to the scene, along with the Water Police.
Five people were taken to hospital.
An 80-year-old man also drowned a short time later in a separate drowning 20km away at a beach in Rye.
A child is also fighting for life after being pulled from the water at Lysterfield Lake in Narrewarren, 38km south-east of Melbourne on Wednesday.
Emergency personnel were called to Bushrangers Bay after a woman drowned on Wednesday afternoon , one of three drownings in Victoria in the space of four hours
Life Saving Victoria director Kane Treloar described the tragedies as heartbreaking.
'Today has been a challenging day for Lifesaving Victoria lifeguards and volunteer lifesavers. It breaks our hearts to have three tragic drownings in one day; three families that will never be the same again,' he tweeted late Wednesday.
He added lifeguards saved the lives of distressed swimmers in at least three other separate near-drownings on Wednesday.
Two lifeguards pulled a young woman unconscious from the water and revived her at Port Phillip Bay.
Emergency services at the scene in Bushrangers Bay, where a woman drowned after being swept off rocks on Wednesday afternoon
A family of three were rescued by lifeguards on jet skis after they were swept off a bank at an unpatrolled stretch of beach on the Surf Coast, while a boy was rescued from a dangerous rip in Gippsland on Wednesday night.
'We’re committed to reducing drownings, and our team will be back out tomorrow; but we need you to do your part,' Mr Treloar added.
He ended his tweet with a desperate plea for everyone to take care in the water this summer by knowing your limitations, not swimming alone and to swim between the flags.
There were 35 fatal drowning incidents in the second half of 2020, according to Life Saving Victoria.
Four swimmers were swept off rocks at Bushrangers Bay in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula