A boy died and a second child was missing after the two 10-year-olds went into a rain-swollen river while playing in a park in Passaic, New Jersey, authorities say. A third child in the water, age 11, survived, per the AP. The local mayor said her life may have been saved by her brother, the 10-year-old who drowned. "As he was going under, he pushed her and she ended up by the rocks and she climbed up," Passaic Mayor Hector Lora told reporters on Wednesday night. "She's alive right now." The other 10-year-old, a girl, was still missing as of early Thursday.
Multiple boats and divers searched the river. "The families really need your prayers and your support," Lora said early Thursday in a video on Facebook. No names have been released. The three children were seen in the Passaic River in Pulaski Park. It wasn't immediately clear how they ended up in the river, which was higher than usual due to heavy rainfall in the region, police in neighboring Paterson said. Firefighters in that community had rescued about 20 people who became trapped by rapidly rising floodwaters.
Lora said that first responders started receiving calls at about 6:20pm, and that a man in the park tried to rescue the children before those rescue workers arrived. "He went in about [16.4 feet] deep, and when he got too deep and the current was pushing him away, he could not reach them," Lora said. "The gentleman expressed to us his obvious pain and hurt." Rescuers used sonar technology to search the river. The waterway flows about 80 miles through forest land and suburbs before entering more urban areas and emptying into Newark Bay. Passaic is about 10 miles north of New York City.
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