Police have suspended for the night their search for two teenagers who went missing after going for a swim near Rockaway Beach.

"I heard 'Help!' and then just a panic, just deep panic scream," said Liz Winer, one of the surfers who saved another boy. "That really freaked me out and I was like, 'No, he's definitely drowning.'"

Divers suspended their search around 9:20 p.m. and will reevaluate on Wednesday, the city police department said.

Investigators said a 15- and 16-year-old boy were part of a group that entered the water around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near Beach 96th Street and Shore Front Parkway.

Officials said three boys were initially in the water. Winer said she and another woman paddled out to one of the boys after they heard him scream, reaching him just in time to let him grab one of their boards and pulling him to safety.

"When we came close, we asked him, 'Do you need help?' He said yes. So that's when we went, we kind of split up, and I had him grab my board. And Liz went for help," one of the Good Samaritans said. "He said he had a friend with him, so we started looking."

Rescue boats battled rough surf while police questioned friends who watched helplessly from the shoreline.

The boy who was rescued was expected to be okay.

"They were just playing in the water, horsing around like teenagers do, and I don't think they realized the power of the ocean," Winer said. "He said that he didn't know how to swim."

The boys are the latest swimmers to go missing at Rockaway Beach, which closed for the season last month.

"This year in the Rockaways, there were seven drownings," Community Board 14 member Eddy Pastore said. "We need to get the message out that it's unsafe to swim without the lifeguards here."

Pastore urged city officials to do more to protect the public.

"We could always use more pep officers, I mean, until it gets colder and people don't want to go in the water," Pastore said. "But you get a beautiful day like today, tomorrow's going to be 90 degrees, there's going to be people on the beach, and if it's not supervised, people are going to go in the water."