A 12-year-old girl is in a critical condition after she was pulled unresponsive from the water at Trigg Beach.

Police received reports of swimmers in distress at the popular beach, in Perth’s north, around 6:30pm on Tuesday.

“On arrival, it was identified that two girls, both age 12, had been caught in a rip and pulled out to sea,” a WA Police spokesperson said in a statement.

“One of the girls was rescued by a surfer and safely brought back to shore.”

People sitting on beach alone or in pairs

Police say the girls, one of them unresponsive, were brought back to shore at Trigg by a surfer. (ABC News: Marcus Alborn – file photo)

The spokesperson said the second girl was found unresponsive in the water and brought to shore, where police, volunteer lifeguards and two off-duty doctors performed CPR.

Surf Life Saving WA general manager Chris Peck said a member of the public alerted lifeguards, who were undergoing training on the beach.

“They’re highly trained, they’ve got access to equipment, they were able to respond as quickly as they could, to apply that emergency care that that person needed,” he said.

Surf life saving kids take part in training on Trigg Beach.

Surf Life Saving volunteers happened to be on the beach when the girls were brought ashore. (ABC News: Rebecca Trigger)

Five St John WA ambulances attended the scene, including critical care and special operations crews.

The second girl was taken Perth Children’s Hospital where she remains in a critical condition.

Lifesavers’ plea

Mr Peck urged beachgoers to only visit patrolled beaches and always swim between the flags over the festive season, with much of the state set to swelter through a heatwave in coming days.

Chris leans on a wooden fence at the beach

Surf Life Saving General Manager Chris Peck has warned swimmers to be alert to dangers like rips and rough waters. (ABC News: Rebecca Trigger)

“Last year was a difficult season for our surf lifesavers. We had an extreme number of rescues and an extreme number of drownings because people were choosing not to swim at patrolled beaches,” he said.

WA surf lifesavers carried out 900 rescues in 2024-2025, and 27 people drowned at non-patrolled beaches — a 35 per cent increase on the year before.

A close up of safety signage at Trigg Beach with the ocean in the background

Beachgoers have been urged to heed safety signage at Trigg Beach and swim between the flags. (ABC News: Rebecca Trigger)

“Our message for you this Christmas is stop, look, stay alive, and make sure that you follow the advice of the lifesavers, and you choose a beach that has red and yellow flags, and that you read the beach safety signage,” Mr Peck said.

He said rips claimed a lot of lives at beaches and urged people to learn how to spot them.

“It’s understanding how to see a rip, [how] to observe it, and making sure that you’re capable of being in that scenario according to the conditions,” he said.

“And they [the conditions] can change very quickly, from flat water conditions to when the sea breeze comes in the afternoon, which helps create those rips.”

A report by Surf Life Saving Australia found the risk of drowning more than triples on public holidays and long weekends.