Brooklyn

13-year-old in grave condition after nearly drowning in Brooklyn's Prospect Park

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A teenage swimmer was pulled from a Brooklyn lake Tuesday afternoon, but despite the best efforts of good Samaritans, the boy is struggling to survive.

Law enforcement sources say the swimmer was a 13-year-old boy, who was taken to the hospital in grave condition after he was pulled from the water in Prospect Park.

Emergency responders rushed to the lake around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday after a group of men helped carry the boy out of the water.

"We saw them pulling him out. He was on the stretcher. They were pumping his chest in the back of the ambulance," a witness to the rescue attempt, Alana Thomas, said.

Witnesses said the boy was in the lake — playing with friends— when he suddenly went under.

"One went too far in. When he went in, he was like I can’t swim and he dropped down. The friends tried to help," Thomas said.

The Prospect Park Alliance warns visitors from going into the water, but residents told News 4 they see people do it frequently.

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