TV weatherman dives into the sea after live report from Australian beach and helps pull a BODY out hours after British gym manager went missing nearby in dangerous surf
- Weatherman Luke Bradnam just finished live report on Queensland’s Gold Coast
- He noticed what he thought was a swimmer in trouble, so stripped off and ran into the ocean to help them out
- Swimmer turned out to be a dead body, which he helped bring back to shore
- Discovery of the remains comes amid the hunt for Briton Jake Jacobs, who went missing on the same stretch of coast on Thursday night
An Australian weatherman has revealed how he ran into the ocean moments after appearing on live TV to help pull a body out of the water – amid the search for a missing Briton.
Luke Bradnam, a reporter for Australia’s Channel Nine, plunged into the surf off the Gold Coast, 40 miles south of Brisbane, just after finishing a live weather segment on Friday after noticing a swimmer in trouble.
But once he was out among the waves he realised the ‘swimmer’ was in fact a body floating in the water, which he then helped bring back to shore.
The body was discovered amid the hunt for Briton Jake Jacobs, 32, who disappeared on the same stretch of coastline on Thursday night.
British national Jake Jacobs, 32, was last seen entering the surf at Kurrawa Beach, Broadbeach – on the Gold Coast – about 9.20pm on Thursday night
Jacobs was last seen entering the water with a woman, 29, around 9.20pm on Thursday, and neither of them has been seen since.
A woman’s body has also been recovered from the ocean since then, but it is unclear if the dead pair and the missing pair are one and the same.
‘It was just an incredible moment,’ Bradnam told Daily Mail Australia after pulling the dead man from the water.
‘We’d seen this boogie board rider motioning to us from the water and he looked like he was in distress. I felt like I had to do something because there didn’t look like there was anyone else around who’d be much good.’
Bradnam, a member of Northcliffe Surf club and a strong swimmer, had been reporting on the Gold Coast’s treacherous surf conditions from Narrowneck all week.
Channel Nine broadcaster Luke Bradnam raced into the ocean at Narrowneck beach on the Gold Coast on Friday night moments after being asked for help by a boogie board rider
Authorities with the body pulled from the water in treacherous surf conditions at Narrowneck, on the Gold Coast
‘I got out there and sure enough, there’s a body face down in the water.
‘The body boarder was looking like he was in shock and I’ve never experienced anything like that. I’ve never seen a dead body before.
‘Because I’m a swimmer I knew how to get us of the rip. I just knew to maintain my composure and get us into a position to get back to the shore.’
‘I didn’t even know if I could swim out there because I tore a muscle in my shoulder at the gym during the week and my arm is meant to be in a sling.
‘It held up long enough to get him back to shore.’
He said he had the body in a ‘brother handshake’ with the boogie boarder as they brought him back to the shore.
‘Thankfully the police arrived as we got to the shore because we didn’t know what to do, there were people taking their evening stroll along the beach,’ he said.
‘I’m just happy we might be able to give closure to a family,’ said Bradnam after the ordeal. ‘Experiencing this, I have even more respect for police and ambos who do this every day.’