By VICKI WATERHOUSE
FOUR children were saved from drowning at Mount Maunganui's main beach at dusk while their caregiver was at a nearby parked car.
The incident comes just days after a similar situation occurred at Papamoa Beach where two girls aged under 7 had to be rescued from a rip while their parents were in the carpark.
In the latest incident on Saturday night, the children, aged between 8 and 16, had to be rescued by four out-of-town lifeguards.
Three lifeguards from Taranaki, Rosa Antunovic, 15, Isaac Owen and Jared Gray, both 16, were training for the weekend's Lion Foundation Surf League when they heard cries from two young children in the shallows.
"The sun was going down ... you could just see them in the water bobbing around," Miss Antunovic said.
"You could hear them yelling out 'help'."
Another two children, teenage brothers, were up to 100m offshore and one, aged about 14, was in serious trouble.
Isaac Owen said he had swallowed a large amount of water and was disoriented.
"He wasn't really responsive at all. He couldn't really have any control over his muscles."
The trio paddled out to the brothers who were furthest out, and Isaac Owen and Jared Gray used a board to bring them back.
Rosa Antunovic said she feared what could have happened to the boy who was in the worst condition had they not been there.
"He had secondary drowning and was barely conscious," she said.
Rosa Antunovic said it was just chance that they were out so late at night .
She had just been informed she would be taking part in a board competition the next day and needed to practise, so Isaac Owen, Jared Gray and their coach, Andrew Cronin, came along to help with her training.
United North Piha's Brent Aries rescued the two youngest children from the shallows.
When the children were ashore, they were returned to a woman who was the mother of the two brothers, but who was responsible for all four children.
She was sitting in a parked car on Marine Parade to the left of Leisure Island above the toilet block.
"The older brother said their mum was waiting for them and we were quite keen for them to go to hospital," Mr Cronin said.
"We went up there and mum was sitting in the car with a toddler. She was pretty unaware."
In a similar incident on January 25, two girls aged under 7 had to be rescued from a rip while their parents were in the carpark by the surf club at Papamoa Beach about 80m away, unaware of what was going on.
At 5.15pm, the girls were pulled from the rip by two teenage boys.
Head Papamoa lifeguard Josh Compton said when he questioned the girls, they said their parents were in the carpark.
"The parents hadn't even realised these kids had just been pulled out," he said.
"It's just parents not paying attention."
Four kids left on Mt Maunganui beach nearly drown<p>
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