UPDATED 12:44 PM: SACO — An hours-long air, sea and land search by multiple agencies for two kayakers reported missing early Wednesday was a false alarm, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
“Everyone has been safely located and the Coast Guard is closing out the case,” Command Duty Officer Kenneth Stuart of Coast Guard Sector Northern New England said just after 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Details were not immediately available.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a report at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday that two kayakers were seen in the river near the University of New England in Biddeford.
Another kayaker, who was in the same area of the river but not with the pair who were missing, reported that the kayaks began “getting sucked out toward the ocean” Tuesday night, Stuart said.
The witness reportedly swam to a nearby beach, but did not know the names of the other two kayakers, who were reported missing at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
An MH-60 Jayhawk Helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod joined the search at about 2 a.m., along with a 25-foot response boat from South Portland, a Maine Marine Patrol boat and the Saco Fire Department boat, according to a release early Wednesday morning.
Later Wednesday morning, two fixed-wing planes, one from Cape Cod and the other from the Maine Marine Patrol, continued to search the shoreline and islands in the area of Saco Bay, Stuart said.
Two Coast Guard boats, a 29-foot response boat from South Portland and a smaller boat from Camp Ellis, as well as Biddeford police and Saco police and fire, were also assisting in the search.
BIDDEFORD (AP) — Rescue crews are searching for two people who reportedly went missing on the Saco River.
The U.S. Coast Guard says Biddeford police notified the Sector Northern New England Command Center that it received a report about two people who disappeared late Tuesday at the mouth of the river, near the University of New England Campus.
The Guard Coast, the Saco Fire Department and the Maine Marine Patrol are using boats and helicopters as part of the search.
No other details were immediately released.
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