Police in Nova Scotia say a woman has died after helping save a group of distressed swimmers.

RCMP say officers, paramedics, firefighters and search and rescue technicians were called to a beach in Broad Cove, N.S., at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

A group of swimmers were stranded by a riptide, and civilian bystanders had rushed into the water in a successful bid to rescue them.

After leaving the water, one of the civilian rescuers collapsed onshore, and other bystanders started CPR until paramedics arrived, police say.

The patient, a 45-year-old woman from Sydney, was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.

Her death is not being treated as suspicious, but an investigation by the RCMP and the medical examiner’s officer is continuing.

Police say a man was also treated at the scene and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.