Overview
- Local authorities received an emergency call around 3:40 p.m. on Friday reporting one high-school student and three middle-school students in distress off the coast near Terushima Shrine in Ichiki-Kushikino.
- A prefectural disaster-prevention helicopter and Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels searched the area and rescued one middle-school boy about 45 minutes after the call; he was conscious and able to speak when found.
- Two middle-school students and one high-school student remain unaccounted for and are the focus of an active air-and-sea search by the Kushikino Coast Guard and local fire crews.
- Officials say the group had been jumping from rocks before being swept out to sea, and the Fukuoka District Meteorological Observatory had forecast wave swells for the area even though no formal coastal wave warnings were in force.
- Authorities treat the operation as an urgent missing-person search and beachgoers should note that strong currents can form near rocky shorelines during swells, increasing the risk of rapid drift offshore.