Brit girl, 19, feared dead after being washed out to sea while swimming with pals in North Sea off coast of Netherlands
A TEENAGE British girl is feared dead after being washed away into the North Sea.
The missing 19-year-old was together with her three friends on a beach near The Hague when she vanished while swimming.
The three friends, all believed to be Brits, have since been safely rescued after being found covered in blood by emergency workers.
They are all said to have been caught up in the “wild” sea before getting into serious trouble near the Zuidelijk Havenhoofd in the Netherlands around 8:30pm on Sunday.
Rescuers are now fearing that finding the final missing girl is looking more unlikely as the days pass with no trace found.
It is believed that the three people with the missing teen all tried to rescue her despite the sea sweeping the group away.
A shocked witness told Dutch news site Omroep West that two of the male friends were found with blood across their bodies.
They said: “They both had legs covered in blood. There was also a mother there who was panicking and screaming.
“The water was so wild, really impassable. Those boys barely survived.”
An official says the cuts would have been caused by the boys crashing into the rocky terrain that surrounds the harbour that separates the Ijduin and Scheveningen Beaches.
All three of the tourists were taken to the local hospital for routine checks.
The search has seen dozens of rescue workers looking across the seafront for any sign of the Brit.
Boats and helicopters took part in the hunt along with teams walking through the water holding up flashlights.
A crane has also been used to scour the vast sea and rocky surrounding areas.
Since Monday, the plans have started to change from a rescue mission to a recovery operation as they look for the body, say the Haaglanden emergency services.
A barricade was set up along the beach blocking access to the pier so the rescue teams could carry out their searches.
It comes less than a month after a 14-year-old Brit tragically drowned after falling from a boat and vanishing under the water in Amsterdam.
The boy, 14, was pulled from the Buiten-IJ water in July while he was sailing with pals causing emergency services to rush to the scene.
Rescuers found the boy just under an hour from when he was first reported missing about 3:30pm.
On the same day, a two-year-old girl also died after falling into a lake in Heerhugowaard.