A father drowned trying to save his adult son who was caught in a rip current at the Jersey Shore, according to police.

The drowning happened Monday morning at the beach in Lavallette.

“I can’t remember the last time we had a fatality in the water here. It’s tragic and terrible,” says Sgt. Adam LaCicero.

Police say that they received a call for two men struggling in the water. The father and son lived in a house near the beach. The ocean has been particularly rough due to storms out in the Atlantic Ocean.

“There were two or three lifeguards in the water. They had both the two men in the water, they were bringing them in and we had the rope on shore. Me and the other guys on duty and the other lifeguard were pulling it in and, I don’t know what happened out there, and all of a sudden it seemed like the father went back under,” LaCicero says.

This was the first of five incidents at the shore between Lavallette and Island Beach State Park. About a dozen swimmers were saved, some pulled from the water in critical condition, according to the Seaside Park Fire Department.

Beaches along the New Jersey coast are currently staffed with a skeleton crew of lifeguards due to the offseason. LaCicero says that people shouldn’t be going into the ocean right now because they can put themselves and others at risk.

“Two or three of the lifeguards that were involved, they received medical attention with the ambulance yesterday. The one took some water,” says LaCicero. “It happened last week with a police officer in South Jersey, the drowning afterwards. It's a real thing, it can happen.”

The man who drowned was not identified, but police say that he was 60 years old. The son is in his mid-20s, according to officials.