Search for boy delayed after boat flips

CORRIMAL BEACH, Australia, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Police divers delayed their search for a missing 8-year-old boy believed to have drowned off the coast of Australia after their boat overturned, officials said.

The boat, with four divers aboard, overturned Tuesday in rough seas in New South Wales during the search for the boy, who has been missing since Monday evening in waters off Corrimal Beach in New South Wales, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph reported.

None of the divers was injured, but the boat remained overturned about 54 yards from shore and another boat was to be sent out, officials said.

The boy, Elakimu Muteba, who emigrated with his mother from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2008, had entered the surf at Corrimal Beach near Wollongong with an 11-year-old friend and got caught in a riptide, officials said.

When the girl got back to the beach, she alerted Elakimu's mother and other adults.

Adults who tried to help him stopped when they began to get caught in the riptide.

Police said Elakimu is a poor swimmer and is unlikely to be found alive.