William Hickey, 23, leapt about 10m from some scaffolding attached to the bridge at 12.10am yesterday.

NSW Police divers pulled his body from the water about 5.15pm.

Emergency services had been scouring the river above and below the water’s surface for almost 10 hours.

It is not known if Mr Hickey had been drinking alcohol before the jump.

The former Corowa High School student, who had celebrated his birthday last month, had left his mobile phone on the bridge.

The two friends Mr Hickey was with watched from beneath the bridge as he leapt into the water.

The women scanned the river when he failed to surface, before alerting authorities.

A Volunteer Rescue Association crew took to the water in a boat but the search was called off without success at 2am.

It resumed at first light, when five Albury and Corowa VRA divers searched the water from below while their fellow volunteers maintained a presence in three boats on the surface.

Canoeists from the Corowa Rowing Club and SES crews from Albury and Rutherglen also assisted in the hunt, which took in 4km of the river.

Police at the scene praised the volunteers’ efforts in searching for Mr Hickey, saying their contribution had been invaluable.

NSW Maritime blocked water users’ access to the search zone, while the police divers arrived from Sydney about 2.30pm.

They found Mr Hickey in the middle of the river, about 16m from where he had entered the water.

His father and uncle were among the family to receive the grim news after maintaining an hours-long vigil in a cordoned-off area of the river bank near the rowing club; Mr Hickey’s mother had remained at home with family during the search.

Albury VRA secretary Paul Marshall said the tragic result had brought back the volunteers’ memories of the drowning of Wodonga teenager George Sandford at Albury’s Noreuil Park in January last year.

“Everybody’s got to be careful in the river,” he said.

“It’s unforgiving and forever changing and continually, unfortunately, claims lives.”

Mr Marshall said it was especially upsetting that most of the river’s victims were young.

“For some, it’s a bit of bravado, a bit of testosterone, or a bit of an adrenaline rush,” he said.

“And I’m sure (Mr Hickey’s) not going to be the last person to jump off the bridge; I’m sure there’ll be more.”

The news of Mr Hickey’s death spread quickly on Facebook.

“Rest in peace Wilba, thoughts are with the family,” one man wrote.

A woman who had earlier in the day written “please dont be true” updated her post after Mr Hickey was found to write “Is thinking of you RIP mate”.

Another man wrote: It’s Facebook but I trust you’ll get this somehow, Will; absolute champion, see you some day dude, goodbye ol’ mate.”