NorCal couple swept off rocks into the ocean at notorious danger spot as dramatic video emerges

A couple has been swept off rocks into the freezing Pacific Ocean in northern California before a dramatic rescue operation.

The pair, who have not been named, were taken by the waves at the notorious Panther Beach in Santa Cruz on Tuesday afternoon.

Dramatic video showed rescue swimmers from the Santa Cruz Fire Department and California State Parks Public Safety pulling them out of the water before doing compressions on the sand.

Perched high on a cliff, an official was also spotted in a video released by NBC using binoculars while people helped guide the rescue team to the injured couple.

The couple, both in their 30s, were fishing on the rocks before being swept by the waves. Both received medical care and were hoisted up by a CAL FIRE helicopter.

“First on scene was CAL FIRE and they responded from a fire station that’s just north here, near Davenport. After that, Santa Cruz City Fire Department and California State Lifeguards came here very quickly and they all kind of converged on the scene at the same time,” CAL FIRE’s Michael Horn told independent reporter Chris Cerney.

“Both patients were brought in by rescue swimmers with a lifeguard tube around their torso and they swam in by the swimmers. Both patients, once they were transported up to the cliff here off the beach by a helicopter, one was brought to a nearby trauma center and the other was transported by ambulance,” he added on.

Horn also told the reporter that paramedics were able to pulses back on both patients during the transportation to the hospital. One was even talking on the way to Dominican Hospital.

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