Were you there? Do you know more? Email scoop@theage.com.au He managed to rescue one but the body of the other was pulled from the water by police just after midnight. Mr Brearley said he felt like he had no choice but to help when he heard screaming. ‘‘When I thought about jumping in I was scared. I thought, I could be in the same position as them in five minutes. I could be drawn in myself. But I couldn’t stand there and watch someone drown,’’ he said. ‘‘So it was either I stand there and watch someone drown or risk my life. So I just had to do it.’’

The waiter, who has only been in the country for about four months, said he swam to the middle of the river to reach one of the tourists. ‘‘I put my arm around him. I’ve heard the best thing to do is drag them out backwards. So I put my arm over his shoulder as if I was grabbing him from behind and dragged him out backwards. He was panicking and in shock, and he swallowed a lot of water so I was trying to keep him calm and get him to the edge as fast as possible.’’ ‘‘Then he told me his friend was in there. I asked him where and he said he was under the water. By the time I got to the edge, someone asked me if there was anyone else in the water. I said ‘yeah - his friend is still in there’. And a few other guys jumped in and tried to help him, but obviously weren’t successful.’’ There was a very strong current in the Yarra . . . it’s dark, cold . . . the waiter has been absolutely heroic. Mr Brearley said he had witnessed the tourist he rescued at the bar earlier in the night, and did not think he was particularly drunk.

He said he had travelled to Australia from his home in Manchester on a working holiday instead of going to university because he ‘‘wanted to have a break’’. Police divers retrieved the body of the 27-year-old man near the Princes Bridge about 12.30am. The second man was taken to hospital suffering hypothermia. It is believed the men, who were both wearing jeans, were attempting to swim to the other side. A Victoria Police spokeswoman said police divers discovered the body in about two metres of water. He is yet to be formally identified. Paramedic team manager Susie Dean said the waiter’s actions were ‘‘absolutely heroic’’ and paramedics would nominate him for a Community Hero Award. ‘‘There was a very strong current in the Yarra tonight. It’s dark, cold and he has been able to avert catastrophe for one of the people who was in the river,’’ Ms Dean said.

‘‘The waiter has been absolutely heroic in what he’s done tonight to jump into the river.’’ Ms Dean said when paramedics arrived, there were a number of people in the Yarra, and two people had already been pulled out suffering from hypothermia. She said the scene was chaotic and distressing. ‘‘It was a busy night down by the Yarra River, with a number of people having dinner at the restaurants nearby,’’ she said. ‘‘They reported that two people decided to go for a swim in the river and it looked like they got into some trouble, and another two people jumped in to try to help them.

‘‘A staff member from a nearby restaurant saw that there were some people in some real trouble in the river and has jumped in ... and swum into the middle and pulled one person back to safety, and then swum back out into the middle of the river in order to try and save the other person. But at that stage it has been unsuccessful." Chris Clague, who witnessed the incident, said he had just left Riverland Bar when he heard a man cry out from the middle of the river. ‘‘I said to my friend, ‘is he serious?’ At that point people started calling out to him from the Riverland, ‘float on your back,' 'don’t panic and breathe’.’’ He said it had not been clear to people watching that there was another man underwater, drowning. ‘‘My friend noticed that there was a woman on the opposite bank who was quite upset and crying out. We didn’t even realise at this point that there had been another man in the river and had drowned, until I read about it this morning.

‘‘Unfortunately he must have gone down before anyone in a position to save him knew about it.’’ Yunn Chen, another witness, said she was running along the river when she saw two men in the water, about 15 metres from the bank. ‘‘I stopped because it was strange to see two heads bobbing in the water. It was very quiet and there was no commotion at first. I heard them talking and laughing. They sounded like they were a bit drunk and having fun. ‘‘Wanting to make sure they weren’t in trouble, I yelled out ‘Hey, you guys alright?’. They called out something inaudible. I then yelled ‘Do you need help?’ at which point one of them started yelling ‘help’ a bit more audibly. ‘‘My yelling had caught the attention of the people at the bar nearby. The tide was moving steadily and at this point they had floated further down the river. I made a triple-0 phone call while one man (apparently the waiter from the bar) jumped in to help.’’

Mr Clague said two other men on the opposite side of the river to Riverland had jumped into the water to try to save the tourist, but had to be rescued themselves. ‘‘No sooner had they swum one third of the way across, the guy who had leapt in from Riverland reached the struggling guy and started swimming with him towards the opposite bank.’’ ‘‘It was at this point that one of the two men who had swum in from the opposite bank got into trouble and started calling for help too ... It was a very disturbing scene.’’ Senior Sergeant John Fitzpatrick said the men’s stunt was extremely dangerous. ‘‘Swimming across the river at night when you’re dressed in inappropriate clothing like jeans is really a recipe for disaster,’’ he told radio station 3AW.

Last night’s victim is the second Irish tourist to die in the Yarra in recent years. In 2008, 28-year-old Stephen King’s body was pulled from the river near Charles Grime Bridge two weeks after he went missing after a night out at Southbank. In August, police recovered the body of a Korean tourist who tried to swim across the river near Federation Square while celebrating his 24th birthday. In May, two police leapt into the river at Southbank to save a struggling Melbourne man who jumped drunkenly into the waterway.And in August 2010, a teenage refugee from Sierra Leone drowned after he fell from a footbridge at Southbank. Meanwhile, police last night recovered the body of a man from the Goulburn River near Seymour, 100 kilometres north of Melbourne. Police had been searching for an 18-year-old Seymour man who disappeared while swimming with a friend in the river about 7pm on Friday.

The man’s friend, 21, was able to swim ashore and raise the alarm and an extensive search was launched that night. Members of the public and SES volunteers discovered a man’s body in the river near Anglesey Street just after 7.30pm yesterday. Police will prepare reports on the two recent deaths for the coroner. Follow The Age on Twitter @The Age