‘This is a tragedy’: off-duty NSW police officer rescued teenage son before drowning

Man, 45, was caught in a rip after getting his 14-year-old son to safety at a beach on the state’s south coast

An off-duty police officer who drowned at a beach on the New South Wales south coast had swum out to rescue his own son from a “substantial” rip, police say.

The man, who has not been named, had entered the water at a beach south of Narooma after his 14-year-old son was caught in a rip on Sunday.