(JTA) — Two 16-year-old girls from the Chabad-Lubavitch community who went missing during a Shabbat afternoon walk while on a class trip in Orlando, Florida, were found in a nearby area of densely wooded swampland.
It took rescue teams more than an hour on Sunday morning to reach the girls, identified as Rivka Moshe and Brocha Katz, both students at the Bais Chana High School in Miami. They were only several thousand feet from the resort in Kissimmee where their class was staying, Chabad.org reported.
The girls were being reunited with their parents, who traveled to Orlando from Miami after the teens were reported missing. They had left the resort at 3 p.m. Saturday and did not return, school officials told Lubavitch news outlets.
On Saturday night, police officers from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office began a search of the area with helicopters and infrared sensors and dogs, COLLive, the Chabad Lubavitch Community News Service, reported. Florida State Police reportedly took over the investigation early Sunday morning.
An Amber Alert had been issued.
Brocha’s sister, Devorah Katz Shor, in a Facebook post on Saturday night called on the public to say psalms for the safe return of the girls.
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