Crews were expected to return Wednesday to a suburban reservoir to search for a man who went missing while swimming in the restricted waters — a chaotic scene witnesses said they heard loudly unfold hours earlier.
Around 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wood Dale Fire Protection District officials responded to a report and video showing a person in the Wood Dale Itasca reservoir near the intersection of North Wood Dale Road and School Street, the district said.
Witnesses reported hearing a man, who they said was at the reservoir with a woman, swimming before sudden screams for help broke out.
“I just hear the guy screaming for the girl to come inside and he was screaming and then I stopped hearing the screams,” Victoria Ostasz said.
“There was chaos,” another witness Anastazja Chudy said. “She was super scared and it was chaotic. Her mother and his mother were running over.”
Swimming in the reservoir is not allowed, authorities said. The reservoir is for storm water retention, holding overflow water from Salt Creek.
There are “very powerful drains” in the reservoir, one neighbor said.
Photos and videos at the scene showed a large emergency response for the search as of 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Divers and drones were deployed to assist with the search, officials said. Officials now consider the search a recovery mission, not a rescue.
Further details surrounding the incident were not immediately known.
Search crews continued their efforts until around 10 p.m. Tuesday. The search will resume Wednesday morning, officials said.
Check back for more on this developing story.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
