There are grave fears for an international student who was swept into the water at a beach in Newcastle on Sunday, with the search once again suspended overnight.
Mohsin Awan, a 23-year-old Pakistani student, was on a rock face near Nobbys Beach with another foreign student, also 23, when they were swept off rocks by huge swells on Sunday night.
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Young man feared drowned
A 23-year-old international student is feared drowned after being swept-out in a rip at Newcastle Sunday night. Vision: Network Ten
A group of bystanders managed to get the second man back to shore, but Mr Awan - who was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and black jeans - disappeared.
Emergency services began to search for him, before they were hampered by hazardous conditions and the search was called off.
Water police, surf life savers and the Westpac Resue Helicopter returned on Monday and spent the day scouring the water and the shore, as coal ships drifted past on their way into Newcastle Harbour.
A group of Mr Awan's friends watched the search, which included crews putting dye in the water to check where the current might have taken the missing student.
Dye released to show how water is moving at Nobbys. It's clinging tightly to the rockpool at Sth end where man last seen. @newcastleherald pic.twitter.com/Tq0Ccjhpfi
— Matt Carr (@MattCarrNH) March 19, 2017
The search was again called off on Monday night, expected to resume on Tuesday morning.
Tony Leacy, an ex-firefighter, was at Nobbys on Sunday and saw rough surf and five-metre swells. He said the two men were taking "selfies" in the water before being washed out into the surf.
"They were probably about up to their knees in the water taking selfies and the next thing they were being washed across the beach," he said.
"One of them, the bigger guy, managed to grab onto the rocks but the other guy couldn't make it. He was only a few metres away from the rocks but you could tell neither of them could swim."
Mr Awan, from Lahore in Pakistan's north-east, was studying business at the University of Newcastle after arriving in Australia about seven months ago.
His parents have been notified of the search.
"They are devastated," said Bilal Akram, one of Mr Aswan's friends. "We still have hope.
"He's a really lovely, really friendly guy … we need to find him, we are praying he is found."
The incident comes a month after two Nepalese students - a 23-year-old woman and 26-year-old man - drowned off Sydney's Maroubra Beach.
Surf Life Saving NSW issued a warning on Friday warning of dangerous surf conditions along the NSW coast on the weekend.
Newcastle Herald, AAP