A mother and child are in critical condition after a powerful sneaker wave pulled them into the ocean off the California coast.
The two, who have not been publicly identified, were swept into the water near Baker Beach in San Francisco on Thursday evening.
Officials said they were caught by a sneaker wave, a sudden and unusually large surge that can travel much farther up the shoreline than the waves before it.
According to the San Francisco Fire Department, bystanders on the beach managed to rescue the mother and child before emergency crews arrived and began medical treatment.
They were later taken to hospital, where both remained in critical condition. The Daily Mail said it had sought an update from the fire department on Friday.
The incident happened just eight days after two college students were killed by another sneaker wave along the California coast.
Harshita Nair, 21, and Mahial Sran, 20, both from Fremont, died on June 10 after being caught in a ‘rogue wave’ on the beach close to Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz.
CalFire told the Daily Mail that their deaths marked the fifth water rescue they had responded to along the one-mile stretch of coastline in the past month alone.
A mother and child have been rushed to hospital after a huge ‘sneaker wave’ swallowed them into the ocean off Baker Beach on Thursday. A stock image of Baker Beach is shown above
The pair, who have not yet been identified, were swept into the sea close to Baker Beach in San Francisco on Thursday evening. Baker Beach is pictured above
Baker Beach, where the mother and child were swept away, is located 80 miles north of this stretch.
The mile-long beach is popular with locals and vacationers, complete with picnic benches, restroom facilities, and a parking lot. It does not have lifeguards.
‘This incident is a stark reminder of the dangers of sneaker waves along San Francisco’s coastline and throughout California,’ the San Francisco Fire Department said in a statement.
‘Sneaker waves can surge much farther up the beach than expected, without warning.’
The department later confirmed to the Daily Mail that the mother and child are expected to survive.
Statewide officials issued a beach hazard statement for coastal areas across Northern California this week.
It was originally set to expire on Thursday, but was extended through Sunday morning after adverse conditions persisted.
Forecasters and fire officials warned residents that sneaker waves can close in very quickly and without warning, while advising people to stay away from the shoreline.
Michael Horn, a spokesman for CalFire, explained why this season has been particularly treacherous for beach-goers in California.
‘For the last week and a half, because of a couple of different large tropical storms in the Pacific, we’ve been experiencing really large waves,’ he told the Daily Mail.
Harshita Nair, 21, a legal studies major at UC Berkeley, died close to the shore in Santa Cruz
Mahial Sran, 20, a public health B.S. at San José State University, also died in the double horror
The two friends were believed to be sleeping on Bonny Doon Beach in Santa Cruz, California
‘That’s not characteristic for this time of year. That’s not something that anybody would know that’s just a beach visitor a few times a season.
‘This is not a time of year that you would routinely get huge surf. There are some very large waves recently.
‘With that sort of storm surge, we’ve also been getting some much higher than normal tides, so that’s been increasing the hazardous conditions on all of our beaches throughout the central coast of California.
‘It’s just a really good reminder that, no matter how educated you are on the ocean, you should never let your guard down. Never turn your back on the ocean.
‘Check the tide charts, check what the ocean is doing, and heed the warnings.’
Horn said Sran and Nair, the two students who died last week, had been relaxing on Yellow Bank Beach, a 100yd stretch of sand accessible through a rocky archway.
He said their escape route through the arch was suddenly sealed off by a ‘sneaker wave’ at about 5pm, and a witness who saw them caught in the ocean called 911.
Horn told the Daily Mail it would have taken Santa Cruz firefighters a minimum of ten minutes to reach the students after the first emergency call was made.
By the time firefighters arrived, the women were still alive – but either unconscious or only partly-conscious. ‘One was face-down in the water,’ Horn said.
‘Resuscitation was immediately started on both patients.’
Nair died soon after she was recovered, while Sran was rushed to the hospital where she received emergency treatment until Saturday.
The two women graduated together from Washington High School in 2023.
They were due to graduate college in 2027 – Nair in legal studies at UC Berkeley and Sran in public health and psychology at San José State University.
At school, Sran was a member of the Public Health Peer Ambassadors club, which hosts productivity workshops and social events to help students studying the subject.
Nair hoped to work in law and public service to directly help communities and expand their access to opportunity.
