About 20 high school swimmers from Moreno Valley were rescued from the ocean off La Jolla on Tuesday, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Sixty-two students from Rancho Verde High School in Moreno Valley were on a long-distance swim when they encountered problems, KTLA sister station KSWB reported.
After the “first group” was rescued, more of the swimmers got cold and began panicking, putting their hands in the air to ask for help, a fire official told the station on scene.
Lifeguards brought the victims to shore on water scooters, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department told KSWB.
Two students were hospitalized, while eight others were treated on scene for exposure to the cold, the station reported.
The students had been given a safety talk by lifeguards before seeking to swim to a buoy a half-mile off shore, a lifeguard lieutenant told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Most of the group was able to return to the beach, and all of the students were accounted for after the mass rescue.
