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VIDEO: Three rescued from sinking boat near Staten Island – Metro US

VIDEO: Three rescued from sinking boat near Staten Island

Police rescued an unconscious woman and two men from their sinking vessel near the Verrazano Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

Police said the 35-foot boat was taking on water at about 12:30 p.m. when they found the boaters —two men, aged 81 and 20, and a 68-year-old woman who was unconscious —off the rocky shoreline of Hoffman Island, near Staten Island’s eastern shore.

Officers from the NYPD Scuba Unit were lowered to the boat from a helicopter. After assessing the scene, the responders put the unconscious woman into a rescue basket which was hoisted up to the helicopter.

Dramatic police footage shows responders gathering at the shore as the water thrusts the boat into the rocks. The video then cuts to the woman being brought up and into the helicopter.

Police say the boaters were trying to escape their sinking vessel when they became trapped and injured. The younger man had managed to get to shore, but the woman became trapped as she attempted to jump ship.

“The youngest individual on the boat tried to jump onto the rocks. As he did, the female victim tried to follow him. She stepped onto the rocks and slipped in between the rocks and the boat. So as the tide was pushing the boat into the rocks, she was wedged in between that,”Det. Dan Corio, an NYPD diver, said.

The unconscious woman was airlifted to Staten Island University Hospital and was said to be in critical condition Sunday night. The two men refused medical attention.