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Massive Rescue Effort To Find Teen Gone Missing While Swimming In Lake

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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – There is a massive rescue effort Wednesday night to find a 16-year-old boy who was swimming with friends in a lake behind a fire station.

Dozens of high school students waited for word on their friend who was part of their swimming group.

The lake is just west of Federal Highway and north of Sunrise Boulevard.

One of the teens told CBS4's Carey Codd the boy was swimming with some friends in the evening, got tired and never resurfaced.

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue told Codd that divers went in the water around 9:30 p.m. to search for the boy.

However, they're encountering a challenging situation because they can barely see.

"The water in this lake is very murky, very dark. The bottom itself is very soft so it's trying to find the child by hand," Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Dep. Chief Tim Heiser.

A mother of one of the teens shared a video showing officers gathered near the water as the search went on.

Investigators took several teens inside the fire station to try and figure out what happened and figure out the last spot where the 16-year-old was seen before he went under.

Fire rescue crews are hoping for a good outcome.

"Hopefully we'll find him soon and get him to the hospital and as soon as we do, I'll let you know," Heiser said.

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