Two British tourists have drowned off the coast of a popular tourist town at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef.
A 17 year old boy and a 46 year old man were swept out to sea on Sunday while swimming at a beach in Seventeen Seventy – a town in Queensland named for the year Captain James Cook arrived in Australia.
They were declared dead at the scene after being pulled from the water by a police rescue helicopter.
While police revealed that the deceased were from the UK, their names have not yet been released.
An Australian man is also in a life-threatening condition after being swept out to sea, and was airlifted to the hospital with serious head injuries.
Police say the injured Australian man was from Monto, a town about 150 kilometres inland from Seventeen Seventy, and they’re not sure if he jumped into the water trying to perform a rescue.
