Medics and rescue workers have described how a 15-year-old boy was brought back from the dead after he was feared drowned at sea.

The teenager got into difficulty while he was swimming with his brother and a friend in Egmond aan Zee, RTL Nieuws reported. Ambulance crews dashed to the scene but were unable to restart his heart and declared him dead at the scene.

His lifeless body was taken to hospital in Alkmaar, where staff made a final, seemingly hopeless attempt to revive him.

A spokesman for the emergency services said the boy’s parents had been told he was dead. ‘The police also received official notification, at which point we confirmed his death publicly, on Twitter among other places. But a remarkable last attempt brought the boy back to life.’

Privacy rules prevent the hospital specifying what staff did to revive the boy, who remains critically ill in hospital in Amsterdam.

Rescue worker Shannon van Beek, who was on the scene, said the incident was ‘a miracle’. ‘We’ve never seen anything like this before,’ she told RTL Nieuws.

‘Two of the three boys managed to swim back to shore unaided, but the 15-year-old couldn’t manage it. We brought him to the beach and started trying to resuscitate him straight away. He was taken to the hospital in Alkmaar by ambulance while staff continually tried to resuscitate him.’