HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities say an 8-year-old boy died Friday after a boat filled with children flipped over in the Hudson River north of New York City.
Chief William Barbera of the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office says the call for help came Friday afternoon off Haverstraw, about 30 miles north of New York.
Police and other first responders searched the area in the sheriff’s two boats. In the choppy waters, a man, four boys and two girls were clinging to the boat, wearing life vests. But a seventh child was missing. The chief says divers later found the boy below the overturned boat. He was declared dead at a hospital.
No identities were immediately released. The chief says the group from Monsey, New York, was celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. He did not know if there was any relationship between the children and the man.
WNBC-TV reported that the man was the father of the seven children, all under age 12. The surviving children were medically checked for possible hypothermia in the chilly water, but were found to be fine.
The boy is being buried Friday.
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