{"id":5407,"date":"2026-07-20T23:28:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/07\/20\/five-people-die-in-attempt-to-save-struggling-swimmer-in-ohio-river\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T23:28:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:28:44","slug":"five-people-die-in-attempt-to-save-struggling-swimmer-in-ohio-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=5407","title":{"rendered":"Five people die in attempt to save struggling swimmer in Ohio river"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-14sl0e4\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"4c30b38b-a137-4738-b8c4-316e238afe6b\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"tree branches in water \" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/f9915a0a0b0148ed6cf502e12db1c04b4bd607fe\/0_0_5712_3808\/master\/5712.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"310\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">A section of the Scioto River&#8217;s shore in the Columbus suburb of Powell, Ohio.<\/span> Photograph: Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos\/AP<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"4c30b38b-a137-4738-b8c4-316e238afe6b\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">A section of the Scioto River&#8217;s shore in the Columbus suburb of Powell, Ohio.<\/span> Photograph: Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos\/AP<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-ql9l8l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-l0wuod\">Five people die in attempt to save struggling swimmer in Ohio river<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1xpojbf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1gm5ptv\">\n<p>Rescue crews find two women, pronounced dead at hospital, and the bodies of three men after motorist calls 911<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-x1al2c\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Five people have died in a river in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/ohio\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Ohio<\/a> after several of them went into the water to help another person who was struggling to swim, authorities said Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A motorist called 911 after spotting a frightened child who had been with the group and was running on a nearby road, Delaware county sheriff Jeffrey Balzer said at a news conference on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Two children under age 10 have been placed in the care of family services, the sheriff said, including the child who ran for help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The group had gathered on Sunday along the Scioto River in the Columbus suburb of Powell when one of them went into the river to go swimming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cAnd that\u2019s when the tragedy started to occur,\u201d Balzer said, as the others who jumped in to help also began struggling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Rescue crews searching the water on Sunday found two women, who were pronounced dead at a hospital, Balzer said. The bodies of three men were found in the river on Monday, said Tracy Whited, a spokesperson for the Delaware county sheriff\u2019s department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The tragedy occurred two days after five members of a family were killed in southern Utah after a flash flood swept through canyons during a hiking trip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/ohio\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Ohio<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Five%20people%20die%20in%20attempt%20to%20save%20struggling%20swimmer%20in%20Ohio%20river&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/20\/ohio-scioto-river-deaths?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fjul%2F20%2Fohio-scioto-river-deaths&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/jul\/20\/ohio-scioto-river-deaths\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1kq7f60\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A section of the Scioto River&#8217;s shore in the Columbus suburb of Powell, Ohio. Photograph: Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos\/AP View<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}