Strong current kills 17-year-old in Palanga sea

A strong current pulled three children out to sea in Palanga, killing a 17-year-old tourist from Poland, Palanga Mayor Šarūnas Vaitkus said, according to LRT.

Vaitkus said the teenager had arrived in Palanga with his family. The family went swimming near Jūros Bridge, a bridge over the sea, after 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Palanga’s rescue service received a report at 8:13 p.m. that someone was drowning near the bridge. Rescuers arrived on water scooters within a minute, but the teenager had already disappeared beneath the surface.

The rescuers searched the area until divers found the body and brought it to shore about an hour later. Resuscitation efforts were no longer possible.

According to the mayor, the current caught all three children after they entered the water. The father pulled out a young girl, while rescuers brought a roughly 13-year-old boy to shore after he grabbed a bridge piling. The boy had suffered serious abrasions, and rescuers placed a life jacket on him in the water before taking him ashore.

The teenager disappeared in the current moments after he had been seen on the surface. Efforts by Palanga’s rescuers and later-arriving fire and rescue officers to find him were unsuccessful.

Vaitkus urged people not to speculate about the circumstances of the accident and offered condolences to the teenager’s family. He also thanked rescuers, firefighters, divers, medics and holidaymakers who formed a human chain to help with the search.

He said rescuers had removed nearly 20 children from the sea during the day after finding them swimming without parental supervision in water deeper than their height. Some parents, he said, responded by insulting the rescuers and demanding that they not interfere with their rest.

“Sometimes a few seconds are enough for a tragedy,” Vaitkus wrote, warning that the sea should never be underestimated.