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Two Virginia men remain unaccounted for after attempting to swim in the Potomac River on Sunday afternoon, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue officials.

The men, Asad Nabatzahi and Abdul Doraney, are believed to be in their early 20s residents of Leesburg, Va. They jumped into the river on the Virginia side along with four relatives, according to Capt. Oscar Garcia, a Fire and Rescue spokesman.

"They were sunbathing and they got hot, and figured they would get into the water and cool off," Garcia said. "They ran into difficulty because of the strong current, and only four adults came out on the Maryland side."

Fire and Rescue officials received a call from a hiker on the Billy Goat Trail around 4:30 p.m., Garcia said. The hiker reported that there were five men in the water near Purple Horse Beach yelling for help.

Officials later interviewed four of the men, who had been able to rescue themselves by swimming to the Maryland side of the river, and learned that Nabatzahi and Doraney were missing.

Fire and Rescue officials sent swift water rescue teams to search the Potomac as far south as the Key Bridge, Garcia said. After three hours of searching on Sunday and five hours of searching on Monday, the men remained missing. Fire and Rescue officials have called off the search, though a U.S. Park Police helicopter was continuing to look for the men.

Fire and Rescue officials received unconfirmed reports that witnesses had seen the two men exit the river on the Virginia side, Garcia said. However, the description of the two men — who were last seen wearing Bermuda shorts and no shirts — was vague and it was unclear whether the witnesses could have mistaken other visitors to the Potomac river for the missing men.

If the men were unable to escape the river, Garcia said, they are most likely dead. "More than likely this is going to be a recovery operation if we do find something," Garcia said.