2 Swimmers Still Missing After Search Near Great Falls

Crews scaled back their search yesterday afternoon for two men believed to have disappeared Sunday while trying to swim in the strong currents of the Potomac River near Great Falls Park, authorities said.

The men were with four other people who entered the river from Virginia side, said Capt. Oscar Garcia, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service. After sunbathing, the men "felt hot, so they jumped in the water," which is prohibited, Garcia said. Four of the men emerged on the Maryland side of the river, just off MacArthur Boulevard. But the whereabouts of the other two were unknown.

Garcia identified the missing men as Asad Nabatzahi, 20, and Abdul Doraney, who is believed to be 22.

Garcia said rescue workers scoured the river in boats Sunday night and yesterday morning. They called off the boat search about noon, he said.

A U.S. Park Police helicopter would continue to make periodic sweeps in the area, said Sgt. David Schlosser, a Park Police spokesman. But air search efforts have been scaled back, he said.

There were some witness reports that the men might have left the river on the Virginia side and walked away. Those reports were unconfirmed, however, and Garcia said the men had not been in touch with the others in their group or returned to the place where they had parked their cars when they arrived at the river.

The Billy Goat Trail was crowded with hikers Sunday, Garcia said, making it hard to know whether the people the witnesses saw were the men who were believed to be missing.

In late April, an 11-year-old boy drowned after he slipped into the river while fishing from the rocks with his father near the Chain Bridge.

A 37-year-old man who tried to rescue him also drowned. Their bodies were not found for several days.