A man has been charged after allegedly groping at least three women on the buttocks and stomach while they swam on Anzac Day at Kings Beach on the Sunshine Coast.
Queensland police described the alleged groping as a "great concern" and have warned it may not have been an isolated incident.
The 59-year-old is accused of assaulting three women in their 30s in the patrolled area at Caloundra's Kings Beach yesterday.
It is alleged he dived under water and groped them on the buttocks and stomach, over a 90-minute period.
Senior Sergeant John Mahony said the man had been swimming underwater to deliberately assault the women.
"It's a great concern to police and no doubt to the community that women … cannot swim in an area such as Kings Beach on Anzac Day without being assaulted," Senior Sergeant Mahony said.
"The 59-year-old was grabbing the women on the buttocks and also on the stomach area and the activity certainly wasn't accidental."
Sunshine Coast lifesaving coordinator Jacob Thomson said volunteer lifeguards alerted authorities and held the 59-year-old with the patrol until police arrived.
"We were fortunate to have an off-duty police officer on patrol as well, so that obviously provided guidance for the rest of team on patrol yesterday morning in dealing what was quite a difficult situation," he said.
"We don't have it happen anywhere around the state very often, so it's very unfortunate … we tried to keep it isolated from the rest of the public."
The man is due to face court next week.
Lifeguard Bill Davis said it was an unusual occurrence at the family-friendly beach.
"It's not something that happens very often, but how are you going to screen every person who comes to the beach?" he said.
"People come to the beach to enjoy themselves — the last thing you would think of is actually going out into the surf and getting groped by somebody.
"[Women] should feel safe anywhere they go, regardless if it's a shopping centre or walking down the street."
