AN IRISH MAN died yesterday at a beach in New South Wales, Australia while trying to save his 11-year-old daughter from drowning, local media has reported.

A couple and their three children were in shallow water at Seven Mile Beach, at Lennox Head on yesterday evening when their 11-year-old daughter was swept out to sea on a body board, police told 9 News Australia.

The man, understood to be aged 45, swam out to her but couldn’t bring her back to shore.

However, the man’s wife also swam out and she and the young girl eventually reached the shore safely and alerted authorities.

New South Wales Police confirmed that the family lived in the village of Lennox Head.

“The family is from Lennox Head; officers from Richmond Police District have alerted the Irish Consulate of the man’s death,” police said in a statement.

The beach was reportedly unpatrolled when the incident took place, with the family said to be swimming about 400 metres south of the beach’s lifeguard post, local news paper the Northwest Star reported. 

The man’s death is the third drowning on New South Wales’s beaches in less than three weeks.