Rip tide keeps swimmers from entering sea at Busan's Haeundae Beach

BUSAN (Yonhap) -- The lifesaving team for Haeundae Beach, a famous tourist destination in the southeastern coastal city of Busan, took a measure to keep swimmers out of the sea on Tuesday for the second straight day due to the high possibility of a rip tide hitting them.

The measure, effective from 9:00 a.m. the same day, came after a rip tide with waves 3 to 5 meters high hit the beach. A rip tide monitoring system run by the state-run Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency showed the highest-level alert requiring evacuation from the sea.

Rip currents are channels of water that form near beaches and run a certain distance out to sea. They are fast-moving and powerful enough to carry swimmers away.

On Sunday, as many as 70 swimmers were caught in this summer's first rip tide that hit the beach, and all of them had to be rescued by the lifesaving team.

Tuesday's measure irked some of the swimmers who packed the beach, who then tried to ignore the lifesaving team's instructions and had a quarrel with the lifesavers who were preventing them from entering the sea.

Haeundae, which opened on July 1, is home to the most famous beach in South Korea that attracts millions of beachgoers during the summer.

An official at the lifesaving team said, "A rip tide could take place all of a sudden and there is a higher possibility of swimmers being carried away by a rip tide coupled with high waves like today."

The team allowed swimmers to wade into water as deep as their knees to help beat the heat.

The Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency forecast that the beach will see a rip tide on Wednesday.