A 15-year-old boy drowned and five other people were pulled from the water at an unguarded New Jersey beach in a Memorial Day weekend tragedy, according to reports.
The doomed teen, whose name was not released, was swimming in a section of Sandy Hook Beach without lifeguards on duty shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday when bystanders heard a mother screaming that she could not see her son in the surf, ABC News said in a report.
Bystanders and lifeguards from nearby sandy stretches raced to the scene, plucking swimmers from the water, including the tragic teen.
“People jumped in the water” to grab the swimmers, witness Luis Sanchez told the outlet. “And then there was one missing that they couldn’t get.
“They [eventually] pulled him out, they started giving him CPR, and they couldn’t get [revive him].”
The incident happened at Beach B, one of several areas at the Gateway National Recreation Area in Monmouth County, where officials said there are signs warning beachgoers that lifeguards were not on duty at that particular site.
“When it’s windy, the weather is like this, you get rip tides, and you can easily drown,” Sanchez noted.
One of the five swimmers who survived the ordeal refused medical attention, while the others were taken to Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch and Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, the Asbury Park Press said in a report.
The conditions of the other swimmers were not immediately available.
Last year, at least 28 people drowned in rivers, lakes and the ocean in New Jersey, the outlet said.
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Next Gen News Team