Search Suspended For Boy Missing In Waters Off Long Beach

UPDATED, 5 P.M.: The Long Beach Police Department has confirmed that the search for the 10-year-old has been called off. Officials called off the search Wednesday afternoon, not long after the Coast Guard called off its search.

The 10-year-old boy, who is now presumed dead, and his 11-year-old brother were swimming in the water around a jetty near Edwards Boulevard when they were grabbed by a rip tide. The 11-year-old managed to make it back to shore, but his brother did not.

Rescuers from the Coast Guard, the Long Beach police and fire departments, and fire departments from all over the South Shore, exhaustively combed the water around the beach for hours, searching hundreds of nautical miles.

UPDATE, 11:55 A.M.: The US Coast Guard announced around 11:15 a.m. that it was suspending its search for the 10-year-old boy who went missing in Long Beach waters.

The Coast Guard announced the suspension of a search in a release. The agency had devoted three boat crews and two helicopter crews to the search, covering more than 310 nautical miles.

Other agencies, including the Long Beach police and fire department, are continuing the search.

ORIGINAL STORY: As the sun rose on Wednesday, rescuers in Long Beach got back to work searching for a missing 10-year-old boy who became lost in the water Tuesday evening while swimming with his brother.

The boy, who was originally identified as being 8 years old, went swimming with his brother in the waters of Ocean Beach Park near Edwards Boulevard around 6 p.m. The older boy, who is 11, tried to hold onto his brother when they got caught in a rip current, but they were pulled apart, Long Beach Fire Commissioner Scott Kemins said, according to an NBC 4 report. The two boys, from Hempstead, have not yet been identified. The older boy managed to make it back to shore safely. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Rescuers had to suspend the search once darkness fell on Tuesday, making it difficult to see in the water. Long Beach police stayed on the beach all night.

Helicopters from the Coast Guard were in the air at first light, and police and fire department personnel are out in boats. On Tuesday, fire fighters from many neighboring departments joined in the search. Divers from the New York Police Department also joined in the search.

"We are in the air at first light and there will be another search pattern from the beach,” Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier told Newsday. “We are treating it as an active search at this time although other government agencies are in recovery mode."

Photo courtesy Long Beach Fire Department