ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Authorities say a Pennsylvania father died while rescuing his son who was struggling in rip currents while swimming in the ocean off Atlantic City.

Emergency responders went to the beach around 9:30 a.m. Monday for a report of a child drowning.

Before they arrived, the 59-year-old Reading man had entered the water to help his 11-year-old son, who eventually made it to shore. But the father began struggling, and a former police officer who happened to be at the beach entered the water and tried to pull him in using a boogie board.

Emergency responders soon brought the two men ashore, but the father was unresponsive and was soon pronounced dead at a hospital. The former police officer wasn’t injured.

The father’s name hasn’t been released. The child was treated at the hospital for undisclosed injuries.

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