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This article was corrected on July 15, 2009. An explanation of the correction is at the end of the story.

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue swift water teams are searching for a swimmer who went missing just south of Old Angler's Inn on Tuesday afternoon.

The swimmer, who is described as a 32-year-old Hispanic man, attempted to swim from the Maryland side of the river to the Virginia side with another man around 3:15 p.m. The other man made it out of the water unharmed, said Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service Assistant Chief Scott Graham, though police weren't called about the swimmer until around 4:30 p.m.

Graham said he's not sure what contributed to the delay — there may not have been access to a cell phone, or the other man may have attempted to rescue the swimmer. "There are a lot of mixed stories, but we do know there was a pretty significant delay," he said.

Both of the men are Silver Spring residents, Graham said. Police are not identifying the missing man.

Swift water rescue teams and a U.S. Park Police helicopter searched the Potomac Tuesday until about 7:15 p.m. and resumed the search around 8 a.m. today, Graham said. Around noon, rescuers were discussing calling off the search until later this afternoon or this evening because of sun glare on the water, Graham said.

Graham said the search was moving into "recovery mode," but stopped short of saying the swimmer was presumed dead. "We're not going to make that determination — all we're saying at this point is our efforts are geared towards recovery mode," Graham said. "If the person has surfaced or if a hiker or a recreational person down there sees something in the water, we'll go and investigate."

Two Leesburg, Va., men drowned in the same area of the Potomac on June 21 after attempting to swim from the Virginia side of the river to the Maryland side. The bodies of Abdul Doraney, 22, and Asad Nabatzahi, 20, were recovered June 24.

Swimming is forbidden in the Potomac River Gorge, and the strong current can cause problems even for experienced swimmers, Graham said. "It's illegal and it's dangerous to swim in that river and it has deadly consequences for those who don't obey that," Graham said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated what day the swimmer went missing. The swimmer went missing on Tuesday.