NYPD: Swimmer off Rockaway Beach lacking since Friday night time

NYPD divers and aviation search groups have been trying to find a younger man who went lacking whereas swimming off Rockaway Beach Friday night time, police stated.

Just after 6 p.m., as intense thunderstorms struck the larger metro space, police stated they responded to 911 calls a couple of 22-year-old final seen swimming round Beach twentieth Street and Seagirt Avenue.

The preliminary search by NYPD’s Harbor, Scuba and Aviation Units was unsuccessful and the person remained lacking as of Saturday morning. Police say they plan to renew canvassing efforts all through the day.

Kaitlin Krause, founding father of the nonprofit Rising Tide Effect, which advocates for water security, was establishing a swim security instruction for the neighborhood, simply steps from the place the swimmer vanished.

“The irony is, I was there to give a water safety talk. I was literally setting up my handouts when I saw the firetrucks charging down the boardwalk,” she said Saturday.

Since then, she said the family of the young swimmer has been reaching out to her for updates. Krause said he was a recent immigrant from Niger, and had just taken his second day off from work in two years when he drowned.

Police have not confirmed any information about the swimmer’s identity while the search is still underway.

“All the locals know that’s a treacherous spot,” Krause stated.  “At the top it looks calm but under its moving.”

She stated the lifeguards and different first responders raced into the ocean, however she is aware of simply how shortly somebody can drown.

Watch: Lifeguards carry out a “grid search” after a swimmer went lacking off Rockaway Beach Friday. (Video courtesy of Kaitlin Krause)

“It literally feels like time is set on fire and you’re burning it all up, because this kid has no oxygen,” she stated.

City lifeguards have performed 126 seaside rescues to date this summer time, in line with NYC Parks.

If the swimmer will not be discovered, he’ll develop into the second to drown within the space throughout this summer time season. A surfer additionally drowned this yr in April.

At this time final yr, at the very least six individuals had drowned at metropolis seashores in line with metropolis officers.

This story has been up to date with a witness account.