Local & State Headlines

Two missing in Flint River

• Police search for the body of a good Samaritan and a young boy who went missing in the Flint River Sunday afternoon.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Police were searching for the bodies of one boy and a good Samaritan who jumped into the Flint River to help the boy and his brother to shore Sunday evening after the two boys began having trouble with the current.

Albany Police Department spokeswoman Phyllis Banks said an 11-year-old boy and his 10-year-old brother had been swimming in some shallows in the river just north of the Broad Street bridge when they began to have trouble with the water’s current.

A 23-year-old man noticed them and went out to help them ashore. He was able to rescue the 10-year-old but he and the older boy went missing as he was trying to help, Banks said.

Police got the call about 4:50 p.m. and the bodies had not been found about two hours later. Police had not released the identities of the missing people as of Sunday evening.

Several agencies were called in during the search, including the Albany Fire Department and the Albany/Dougherty Search and Rescue Team and the Department of Natural Resources.

AFD Chief James Carswell said the department was using sonar on one of its rescue boats to help locate the bodies. Most of the river where the two went missing isn’t very deep, though there are a few eight- to 10-feet-deep sections that sonar indicated had some “areas of interest,” he said

“We’ve found some areas of interest down in some deeper areas we’re checking out,” he said.

Carswell said searchers, including three divers with the search and rescue team, were focusing on an area between the Broad Street bridge and a train crossing because witnesses indicated they did not see any bodies cross a rocky section of the river.

About 50 or so people who were in the area were moved back to Front Street as agencies searched the river for the two missing people and police established a large crime scene perimeter. The Broad Street bridge had also been closed off to pedestrians and traffic as agencies searched for the bodies.

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