Rescuers fear the worst for missing teen swimmer

Boy, 13, was swimming with three friends when swept to sea; rescue workers shift focus from water to shoreline as night falls.

Tel Aviv beach 311 (photo credit: Alessandra Da Pra)
Tel Aviv beach 311
(photo credit: Alessandra Da Pra)
Police and rescue personnel continued a furious search for a 13-year-old boy who was swept out to sea while swimming with three friends on the Carmel Beach south of Haifa on Wednesday.
Police helicopters, boats, divers, and volunteers were still searching for the missing boy by nightfall on Wednesday, and are already entertaining the possibility that the boy has drowned.
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Two of the boy’s friends were already rescued earlier in the day by surfers, and a third managed to swim to shallower waters on his own, but their friend has still not been seen.
The bathing season only begins on Carmel beach on May 5 and on Wednesday the beach was without lifeguards and marked with signs saying swimming is forbidden.