Boy Missing in Surf After Friend Saved : Accident: Search to resume today for 10-year-old Santa Ana child tugged by waves from playmate while both were in ocean off Newport Beach.

NEWPORT BEACH — One boy was missing Sunday and lifeguards rescued his playmate after the two waded hand-in-hand into strong surf that apparently overcame them both.

Authorities refused to say whether they believed Tony Luong, the missing 10-year-old Santa Ana child, had drowned, but divers were searching the ocean off Orange Street, where he was last seen. Police were also searching the beach, alleys and streets nearby in the hope that Tony had left the water safely.

“We’ve been looking for hours now, hoping that maybe he’s lost on the street and can’t find his way back,” Newport Beach Police Sgt. John Freeman said three hours after Tony was reported missing at 2:30 p.m. “But things don’t look very good right now.”

Added Newport Beach Lifeguard Lt. Jim Turner: “No one saw the second boy and his friend said they went out there together, so we have to presume he was last seen in the water.” Greg Stewart, the rescued boy who is also 10 years old and from Santa Ana, told lifeguards that his friend could not swim. The two had waded into the ocean together and were playing hand-in-hand before they were separated by strong waves.

A lifeguard and Joel Shankman, a 39-year-old Westminster man, rescued Greg after they heard his screams from the surf about 70 feet offshore, authorities said. The pair were unaware that a second boy was in the water until the rescued child told them.

“My main concern is the other boy,” said Shankman, who was a lifeguard for 19 years. “I’m used to hearing that (screaming) sound, but I hadn’t heard it in five years . . . the (lifeguard) skills you never lose.”

Shankman said he was throwing a Frisbee when he heard screams and plunged into the water. On the way out, he encountered the lifeguard and both brought Greg to shore.

Shankman said the boy was floundering and would not have survived in the water for long.

Lifeguards examined Greg and determined that he was not hurt. He was released to a guardian who was on the beach with the two boys.

In a brief interview, Greg said: “We went out into the ocean and the wave took us and he let go of my hand and now we can’t find him.”

The guardian, whom police would not identify, told officers she and the boys had been at the beach about 40 minutes before the accident. The woman, her eyes red from crying, declined comment Sunday.

More than two dozen divers searched fruitlessly for the missing boy for three hours, but called the underwater search off when visibility worsened, Turner said. Police were still searching the beach late Sunday night, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Kent Stoddard.

The underwater search will resume this morning.