5 drown in New York, Long Island

NEW YORK, July 27 (UPI) -- A 10-year-old girl disappeared Saturday in the water off Coney Island in New York, becoming the fifth presumed drowning in the city and Long Island.

Akira Johnson was with a 10-year-old cousin, Tyriek, the New York Daily News reported. Lifeguards pulled Tyriek from the water.

"I saw the little girl's hand go up once, then it went down, and then she disappeared," Mark Vega of Coney Island told the News, crying as he recalled watching the tragedy from the beach.

New York has endured days of sweltering weather, with residents crowding the beaches as they try to escape the heat.

Devon Flanders, 22, an immigrant from Trinidad who lived in Brooklyn, disappeared Friday while swimming with a friend at Jacob Riis Park in Far Rockaway. His mother said her son swam almost every day and was "a great swimmer."

On Long Island, one teenager drowned and a second was missing in Long Beach. The friends were playing football in the water Friday when they were hit by waves.

In the Hamptons on the east end of Long Island, a man in his 20s disappeared Friday while swimming at Sandy Bar Beach.

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