SCRANTON -- Police spent the afternoon interviewing lifeguards and swimmers after a 19-year-old man was pulled from a pool Thursday afternoon in Scranton.
The pool at the Connell Park pool complex was cleared and police put up tape after the incident around 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
Witnesses say the man struggled after doing a flip off the diving board.
Even for such a hot day, swimmers say there were four or five people in the pool when a 19-year-old man walked up on the diving board and did a back flip, landing on his back in the deep end.
Victoria Szanyi, age 11, was in the water, too.
"He came up to the surface and was splashing his arms and he said, 'help.' Victoria recalled. "And then everybody thought he was joking, and then when he went down and he was just laying at the bottom of the pool, the lifeguard asked me to jump in, and I jumped in and went to go down and touch him. He wasn't moving and I came back up and told the lifeguard. He threw his phone, took off all his clothes, and jumped in."
Witnesses say it took two lifeguards to get the man out, then they started doing CPR before the ambulance arrived taking the man to the hospital.
Police stayed and roped off the pool. Detectives met with witnesses and some lifeguards were taken to police headquarters for interviews.
"I never saw something like that happen before, so i really feel bad for that boy," Victoria added.
"I thought it was pretty scary at first," said Bill Brown. "That's a shame that that happened to him though."
Police have not released the name of the man who was pulled from the pool and there is no word on his condition.
The director of Parks and Recreation for Scranton told us he could not comment on the incident and couldn't tell us how long Connell Park pool will be closed.
