Rescue workers are frantically trying to locate a Long Island swimmer who vanished off the North Shore Monday night at sunset.
The unidentified individual was last seen in “distress” at 7:49 p.m. at the Kings Park bluff near the Nissequogue River mouth by Smithtown Bay and the Long Island Sound.
“We don’t know if he was swimming or in a kayak or something else. He was first noticed struggling in the water,” Suffolk County police said.
The swimmer went missing close to where the mouth of the Nissequogue River meets the Long Island Sound and Smithtown Bay. News 12
The swimmer went missing close to where the mouth of the Nissequogue River meets the Long Island Sound and Smithtown Bay. Donna Grace/NY Post DesignDive teams, police dogs, and marine units were all searching the area last night in tandem with local volunteer fire departments and the US Coast Guard, officials said.
“It’s an unfortunate situation — by the time we arrived on at the location, the swimmer was no longer visible,” Kings Park Fire Chief Philip Carroll told The Post. “The bystander said that he struggled for a while and then went under the water.”
No kayak or watercraft was discovered at the scene, he said. The swimmer is believed to have been a man.
“That’s a difficult area,” Carroll said. “From a swimmer’s perspective, the current is tricky there. It moves in and out quickly, and pulls quickly.”
Police and other officials had resumed the search Tuesday.
The news comes about three weeks after 29-year-old Petros Krommidas, a Democrat vying for a position on the Nassau County Board of Legislators, went missing off the coast of Long Beach in late April, prompting a search party of nearly 100 people.
