2 people rescued off Santa Cruz County beach after being swept out by high tide

Two people were rescued from the water at a Santa Cruz County beach on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

Cal Fire said the incident happened near Bonny Doon Beach, about 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County Volunteer Fire Captain Kyle Breton said in a post on social media that crews responded to a report of person in the water and arrived to find two people needing rescue.

Eight rescue swimmers were able to bring the two patients back onto nearby Panther Beach, Breton said. A helicopter transported one of them to a bluff above the coast where an ambulance crew awaited to take the patient to a hospital, while the second one was hauled up in a rescue basket and then also taken to a hospital, he said.

The incident came during a time where the National Weather Service had issued a beach hazards statement for the entire coastline and the two persons were caught at a keyhole arch - a natural sea cave connecting the beach to the adjacent Yellow Bank Beach

"Both of these patients, we believe, were originally sleeping right at the keyhole, which is an area that we're finding catches people unaware," Breton said in the video post. "The tides come in, and in this case, they swept out two sleeping patients."

Breton added, "But what we're also seeing is that people go through the keyhole to get to Yellow Bank Beach and then they get trapped.  

Cal Fire said it was the fifth rescue in the past month along a 1-mile stretch of coastline from Yellow Bank Beach to Bonny Doon Beach.