PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 25-year-old swimmer went missing in the Delaware River in Northeast Philadelphia overnight. After searching for hours, crews shifted from a rescue to a recovery operation.
It was around 1 a.m. when a group of about 20 people met up in the area of Pleasant Hill Park on Linden Avenue in Torresdale.
They got onto four boats and went out onto the Delaware River, police said. At some point, two people in the group jumped into the water to swim.
“They were swimming far out; they were a little tipsy, they were getting some drinks in the boat,” Argeni Infante Reyes, a friend of the missing swimmer, said to reporters. “He swam out of the boat with my other friend. The last word he told my friend, ‘Hey, I can’t no more. I love you.’”
The Coast Guard said one person was safely rescued from the water by a nearby boat.
The other man went under, and that was the last time he was seen. Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, Philadelphia police and fire departments started to search early Friday morning. There were boats in the water and a helicopter in the air as part of the effort to find the man.
A group of about 20 people went boating around 1 a.m. in Northeast Philadelphia
A group of about 20 people went boating around 1 a.m. in Northeast Philadelphia
