Search Ends for Boy Feared Swept Out to Sea : Drowning: Lifeguards find no trace of youth who was separated from his friend in the surf.

Lifeguards on Monday ended their search for a 10-year-old Santa Ana boy who apparently was swept out to sea after he and a friend waded into strong surf.

“It’s pretty much fruitless at this point to dive,” said Gordon Reed, a Newport Beach lifeguard. “He’s probably been pulled out by the currents, and now it’s just a matter of body recovery.”

Reed said lifeguards hoped ocean currents would push the body of Tony Luong to shore sometime within a few days.

Tony, a fourth-grader at Santa Ana’s Taft Elementary School, went to the beach with a group of friends chaperoned by the mother of one. She told police that they had been at the beach for about 40 minutes when the accident occurred.

Tony, who apparently could not swim, was playing in the surf off of Orange Street with one of the boys, Greg Stewart, 10, of Santa Ana, when the two became separated by waves at about 2:30 p.m., Greg told authorities.

After hearing Greg’s screams from about 70 feet offshore, a lifeguard and Joel Shankman, 39, of Westminster pulled him from the ocean. Shankman had been throwing a Frisbee along the shoreline when he heard the screams and plunged into the water.

The pair were unaware that another boy was in the water until Greg Stewart told them. The boy said they had gone into the surf hand in hand, but he lost track of Tony when a wave forced them apart.

More than three dozen divers immediately began a search of the surrounding area while police looked along the beach and in nearby alleys and streets in case Tony had made it to the beach safely.

Divers decided against going out into the ocean again Monday because of poor visibility, Reed said.

Police said they resumed their search Monday along the streets and the beach area in the hopes that Tony made it to shore overnight.

Police will re-interview witnesses and try to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing in connection with the youth’s disappearance, Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said.