Police say a member of the public has located what appear to be human remains at a beach on the New South Wales Mid North Coast where a swimmer was swept out to sea five days ago.
An 18-year-old Sydney school leaver was swimming with friends off Little Bay Beach in Arakoon, near South West Rocks, when he was dragged out to sea by a rip on Sunday afternoon.
Police said he was a recent graduate of The Kings School in Sydney and was on a schoolies trip with friends to celebrate the end of HSC exams.
They reported that his friends and bystanders attempted to reach him.
Little Bay Beach is an unpatrolled remote beach and a difficult area to navigate.
The Westpac Rescue Helicopter assisted in the multi-agency search. (ABC Mid North Coast: Sophia McCaughan)
A large scale multi-agency search ran for several days, before scaling back to a police marine command search yesterday.
At about 7.30am today police were called to the same beach after reports of the discovery.
The remains have been taken for forensic examination and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
The discovery comes after the death of a 59-year-old man who drowned a week ago at Racecourse Beach, near Crescent Head on the Mid North Coast.
That occurred a day after a Swiss woman died and a man was severely injured during a shark attack at Crowdy Bay, further south on the Mid North Coast.