A Pennsylvania couple on vacation in Florida with their six children died Thursday after getting stuck in a rip current off the coast of Hutchinson Island and drowning.

Brian Warter, 51, and Erica Wishard, 48, were in the water when they and two of their teenage children got caught in the current. The two children escaped from the current and tried to help their parents, but were ultimately forced to swim back, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

The incident occurred at around 1:30 p.m., Martin County Fire Rescue said on Facebook. Lifeguards retrieved the unconscious Mr. Warter and Ms. Wishard from the water and began CPR.

Rip currents are columns of water that push away from shorelines and toward open bodies of water. Swimming parallel to the shore can help those stuck in such dangerous currents.

“One of the children of the deceased was trying to yell them instructions of how to swim parallel to the shore. Don’t fight. But they were in panic mode and, unfortunately, went under,” Deputy Chief John Budensiek told WPTV-TV.

None of Mr. Warter and Ms. Wishard’s children were named by authorities.

After performing CPR, responders continued to attempt to save their lives in an ambulance and then at a hospital, where both were pronounced dead.