A child and a man have died on a beach camping trip in Western Australia, with equipment in the tent apparently to blame.

Police and paramedics attended about 8km south of the Wedge Island access road, some 150km north of Perth, on Monday morning after being told the boy was not breathing.

They found the child and man dead, and a woman at the scene needing urgent medical help. The woman was flown to a Perth hospital.

Police said the two deaths were not being treated as suspicious.

“Initial investigation at the scene suggests there may have been a fault with an item of camping equipment located inside the tent the family were sleeping in,” they said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services helped to safely remove the camping equipment, which is believed to have been powered by gas.

“It’s just very tragic,” the police minister, Michelle Roberts, told reporters.

“It’s a long weekend – so many people would have had a similar experience of camping in their tent, be it at Wedge Island or somewhere else, and they would have used potentially similar equipment.”

Police were informing next of kin so could not confirm reports the man and child were related.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.