The search continued on Monday morning for two 13-year-old boys who went missing at the Black River mouth in Paarden Eiland, Cape Town, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Monday.

“The families have been traced by police and are receiving assistance,” spokesman Craig Lambinon said.

On Sunday, Lambinon said five boys from Elsies River had been swept out to sea on a small floating barge of barrels.

“It appears that on realising that they were being swept too far into the sea, about 100 meters off-shore, they jumped off of the floating barrels to swim to shore but two of the children… disappeared under water while the remaining three children, all aged 14, managed to reach the shore,” he said.

He said that despite an extensive sea, air and shore search, the two missing children could not be found.

The three survivors were taken to hospital in stable condition.

It was not known where the floating barge had come from and the police took it as part of their investigation. SAPA