The city beach at IJburg in Amsterdam has been closed pending a safety investigation following two incidents on Thursday in which one person drowned and another was hospitalised in a critical condition and later died.

The body of what unconfirmed eyewitness accounts said was the body of a girl or young woman was spotted in the water on Thursday morning by a swimmer who thought she was in trouble. On finding the woman was dead, beach goers brought her body to the shore and police were called.

Later in the day a man who had been reported missing by friends was pulled from the water after a search by a police boat and taken to hospital where he died on Friday. The beach was cleared immediately following the incident.

It is not clear what happened in either of the two cases and the beach will remain closed until the local authorities have carried out checks, mayor Femke Halsema said.

IJburg has a designated swimming zone marked with lines and buoys but there are no life guards.