THIS is the horrifying moment two men were sucked to their deaths after battling strong currents in a US river.
Frantic onlookers shouted and screamed as they filmed the pair "sinking like rocks" - but at no point did one of them try to save the men.
In the video, shot in Buffalo on Monday, a man can be heard yelling: "They're gonna die in there...I ain't going in there."
Another witness urges them to "grab the wood," referring to a log that one of the men attempts to use as a buoy.
But the current is so powerful that the log slips and spins and the man is again dragged under.
At one point the two men cling to each other in a desperate bid for survival. Seconds later, the clip suddenly ends.
The bodies of Mario Guthrie, 29, and 46-year-old Scott Vater, were recovered an hour later by underwater rescue divers.
At a news conference, police said the two men entered the water near a circular current.
Buffalo Police Dept. Captain Jeff Rinaldo said one of the victims had been trying to recover some driftwood when he got into difficulty - then the other man tried to help.
An eyewitness told News 4 that one the men told her he collected driftwood to make furniture and was hoping to retrieve some from the river.
Christina Williams told the news site: "He jumped in and it was clear he wasn't a strong swimmer.
She added that the man in the water had a rope tied to his wrist while the other man held the other end at shore.
At one point the short rope wasn't enough so the man released it so he could grab the driftwood, she explained.
She added: "The other man, at shore, jumped in to save him, but they struggled to stay above water.
"It was only a couple of seconds before they both just sunk like rocks. There was nothing we could've done.
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The recovery comes less than a year after Buffalo Police Lt. Craig Lehner died in a training accident in the same spot of the Niagara River.
Captain Jeff Rinaldo with Buffalo Police told reporters that swift water is very dangerous - even for very experienced swimmers.
He said: "There are different currents that flow ,especially when you get into eddy currents that will pull you towards the wall and then suck you out into the river, as well as pull you down. It's not safe under any type of circumstance."
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