Authorities said a 14-year-old girl who was rescued off the Narragansett coast Wednesday afternoon after a three-hour rescue effort did not survive.
Narragansett police said Maia Stanton, of Southfield, Massachusetts, was pronounced dead after her arrival at South County Hospital.
Officials said she was in the water with her father when she disappeared from view.
Stanton was found unconscious in the water about a half mile down the coast off the rocks near Newton Avenue.
"We lose people pretty much every year off of these rocks," Police Chief Dean Hoxsie told necn affiliate WJAR. "The rocks are slippery and today there was a very large surf crashing into these rocks, which made it even more dangerous."
Police and fire officials said the call came in around 2 p.m.
When they arrived at the scene, the girl's father was in the water frantically searching for her. They moved him to safety, and launched several rescue boats to search the water, while a Coast Guard helicopter and plane to searched from above.
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She was found under water among a section of rocks.
"We had a large set of waves come in which one of our officers on scene noticed her fin, and from there we were able to go down and make a recovery," said Hoxsie.
Residents in the area gathered near Monahan’s Dock witnessed the dramatic rescue effort. They said that the waters can be very dangerous.
"I'm from Narragansett, and something that we know around here is that you don't go off those rocks because they are so dangerous," said Kasey Pickell, a witness. "It's a beautiful area to sit, but when the current’s strong, if you choose to go off those rocks and be in the water, it only takes something small for you to be hit and really injure yourself. It happens all the time."
Another resident expressed similar sentiments.
"The water's rough sometimes and people don’t know about this ocean," David Spears said.
The girl was transported to South County Hospital while EMTs performed CPR.
