Two teenagers were reported missing in the waters off Jacob Riis Park in Queens on Friday evening, setting off an hourslong search into the night along a shoreline notorious for rip currents that prove deadly year after year.
The authorities received reports of a possible drowning around 6:30 p.m.
The officers responding to the scene were told that two teenage boys, ages 16 and 17, had been seen struggling in the water before they disappeared from view, according to the New York Police Department.
Emergency responders with the police, New York City Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard, including rescue swimmers and divers, searched the churning waters, but as of about 11 p.m. Friday no one had been found, according to the police.
Kaz Daughtry, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of operations, told news crews at the beach that witnesses said the teenagers had been overtaken by a large wave that they tried to avoid by jumping, but it appeared to suck them under.
Persons:
Jacob Riis, Kaz Daughtry
Organizations:
New York Police Department, New York City Fire Department, U.S . Coast Guard, Police
Locations:
Queens, New York City