Recovery efforts have been suspended for a 14-year-old boy who was swimming in rough water at Jax Beach. Lifeguards tried to rescue the teen, but lost track of him.
Jacksonville Beach lifeguards told Action News Jax they received a call at 1:50 p.m. about a swimmer in distress in the area near First Avenue south of Jacksonville Beach.
“The family is just absolutely distraught,” said Colleen Jones who was there as the teen was screaming for help just before 2 Sunday afternoon.
Rescue crews from Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach were called in to help, as well as personnel from Jacksonville Fire Rescue and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
“I saw the boy’s arm go down. The ocean was very, very deceiving. You would’ve never thought something like this would’ve happened,” she says.
Jones tells Action News Jax she and the boy’s family jumped in.
Crews searched the waters for several hours in attempt to rescue the boy. The search was called off at 3:40 p.m. and continues as a recovery mission.
“The hardest thing was the language barrier, and trying to help them find the calm and the peace,” Jones says. She goes on to say, “The family members, everyone, the people that saw what happened did everything they could to absolutely to save that young boy.”
Ocean rescue has performed 15 rescues Sunday.