A 17-year-old teen who went missing while swimming at Camps Bay beach on Saturday morning is presumed to have drowned.

NSRI Bakoven station commander Bruce Davidson in a statement said eyewitnesses reported that the teenager went missing at 10:45.

“It appears that a group of 23 teenagers and young adults from Manenberg had arrived together to spend the day at the beach. While some of the teenagers were swimming in the surf, one of the group appeared to get into difficulty and disappeared beneath the surf,” he said.

It is suspected that the boy had been caught in a rip current.

Duty crew and emergency services responded to the incident.

“Despite an extensive air, sea and shore search, no sign of the missing teenager has been found and he is presumed to have drowned,” Davidson said.

“As part of an ongoing search rescue swimmers conducted sweeping line searches, free diving in the surf zone and police divers conducted scuba dive searches in the area.”

The police’s Dive Unit will continue an ongoing search operation and are attempting to locate the teen’s family, he added. News24