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Jul 28, 2008 9:09 am US/Eastern
Divers Suspend Search For Missing Girl
10-Year-Old Girl Disappeared At Coney Island; 4 Dead, 2 Others Missing In N.Y. Waters
Swimmers Warned About Dangerous Undertows, Rip Currents
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A 10-year-old girl is still missing at Coney Island.
CBS
Four people have died and three vanished within two days at beaches in New York City and on Long Island. In at least one search, rescue divers suspended their efforts.
Officers, having patrolled the waters off Coney Island since Saturday searching for missing 10-year-old Akira Johnson, called of the search Sunday afternoon.
Johnson and her cousin Tyriek, 10, were playing in the ocean off West 23rd Street Saturday when they started to struggle in the water. People on shore yelled for lifeguards to help.
"She's screaming, "There's kids drowning.' Then they took the little boy out and after that the little girls hand that was the last thing and she was gone," witness Wanda Gonzalez said.
"The last time her little arm went up and that's what I saw and she just disappeared she was gone," said witness Mark Vega.
In Long Beach Saturday evening, a swimmer or surfer died after he was spotted struggling about 150 yards from shore, said Police Lt. Bruce Meyer. Lifeguards were off-duty but rushed to the beach and reached the unconscious 29-year-old man within minutes. Rescuers and hospital staffers were unable to revive him, Meyer said.
A man in his 30s or 40s had to be pulled from the water off Coney Island. No information was immediately available on his condition.
A 42-year-old man died Saturday afternoon after swimming at a beach near the ocean in East Quogue in Suffolk County, said Southampton Town police.
On Friday, when meteorologists recorded a "moderate to strong" risk of rip currents, several swimmers were sucked out to sea, authorities said.
The Coast Guard called off its search Saturday for one of them, a 23-year-old man swept away off Jacob Riis Beach in Queens as a friend tried to rescue him. The beach is in an area known for strong undertows and rip tides, the Coast Guard said.
Authorities looked for the missing man for 23 hours with no success, the Coast Guard said. Firefighters rescued his friend, who was in stable condition Saturday.
At Long Beach, one man drowned and a teenager disappeared Friday while playing football in about 3 to 5 feet of water after lifeguard hours. Another swimmer, a man in his 20s, drowned Friday afternoon at Sandy Bar Beach on Long Island's East End, authorities said.
The spate of swimmers being swept away seemed unprecedented, police said. Long Beach Police Lt. Bruce Meyer said he "cannot recall there ever being back-to-back situations like this."
With stronger and more frequent rip currents possible over the weekend, "only experienced surf swimmers should enter the waters," said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Connolly.
The rough seas were due to a strong storm system that brought 8-foot waves to the area earlier this week, Connolly said. The weather service monitors offshore conditions for swimmers but does not track trends over time.
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