WATCH: 80-link human chain to save drowning swimmers

Wednesday, July 12, 2017, 6:48 PM - A rip current could have spelled a tragic end for a family of beachgoers in Florida, were it not for dozens of people joining forces to pull them to safety.

A family of nine people, including two children, were unable to leave the waters off Florida's Panama City Beach on Saturday. To rescue them, onlookers on the beach organized themselves into a spontaneous human chain that people on the scene said included around 70-80 people.

Jessica Mae Simmons was one of those near the end of the chain, and she wrote a lengthy account on her Facebook page. She described a scene of exhaustion among the trapped swimmers, with some nearly unable to carry on.

"When I got there, there was two small children, a mother, a grandmother, an older son and a Chinese couple telling me they [were] so tired, that they just couldn't do it anymore," Simmons wrote. "They tell me to save the kids first, so I gave the little boy a boogie board and told the mom to hang on to it. After 15 minutes, of me pulling them towards the human chain, the group of people PULLED him to shore like a chain."  

In the end, all nine were rescued, though one elderly lady who was trapped in the current was hospitalized, according to the BBC.

RELATED: B.C. woman falls 50 feet, trapped in ravine

Bystanders reported police and paramedics were present, and CNN says one officer attempted to swim out to the trapped swimmers, but turned back.

"We stood there on the beach just watching, and the police, they said they were waiting for a boat to come so they could send it out," Rosalind Beckton told CNN.

WATCH BELOW: Man swims in frigid Newfoundland waters to stake claim to iceberg