2 TEENS DROWNED & DIED AFTER DECIDING TO TAKE A DIP IN A RESTRICTED PART OF THE BRONX RIVER!

A popular but off-limits swimming hole near the Bronx Zoo became a deathtrap Sunday for two teenagers trying to cool off from the sweltering heat, officials said.

David Luccioni, 17, and Crystal Reyes, 15, both of the Bronx, drowned when she was pulled under the deceptively calm water of the Bronx River at River Park and he tried to rescue her, fire officials and family said.

"Mi niña! Mi niña!" Crystal's mother screamed before collapsing at St. Barnabas Hospital after learning that her daughter, who had run away from home on Friday, was dead.

Friends said Crystal did not know how to swim.

The tragedy unfolded as the city baked on the third straight day of 90-plus degree heat, prompting the teenagers go for a dip in the forbidden waterway just steps from the Bronx Zoo's Asia Gate.

"What we did, you may call it dumb. Some may call it normal, but what happened was a big accident. Everything just went out of control," said Alex Merly, 18, of the Bronx, among the friends who went swimming and witnessed the tragedy.

FDNY Battalion Chief Pat Murphy said both victims were wearing shorts and T-shirts and were found in an area of the river 10 to 15 feet deep. He said David was wearing construction boots when firefighters fished him out.

The youngsters were swimming with a group of friends in an area near a rocky river dam that is accessible only by jumping a wrought-iron fence marked by city Parks Department signs reading, "Danger No Swimming."

Witnesses said there were at least 20 people, including children as young as 5, swimming in the restricted area near E. 180th St. and Boston Road when the two teens went missing. Friends of the victims said David, who was at the river with his twin brother, Matthew, dived in to rescue Crystal, who went under after losing her footing on the slippery rocks.

"My heart was beating like crazy," said Merly. "I looked back and he [David] is gone and there's screaming and a lot of things going on."

David's father, also David, said his son, a "good student" at Dodge vocational high school in the Bronx, died courageously.

"He wanted to rescue the girl," the distraught dad said. "He was in there rescuing the girl."

The father said his other son, Matthew, was devastated.

"He tried to save his brother, but he slipped out of his hands," said the father, adding that both his sons could swim.

Ladder 58 Firefighters Robert Cuccio, Tom Wutz and Martin Murphy pulled out Crystal, who had been under the water for up to 15 minutes.

Wearing scuba gear, firefighters from Rescue 3 found David about 10 minutes later.

Both were pronounced dead about 4 p.m. at St. Barnabas.

The drowning capped a tumultuous weekend for Crystal's parents, who had been worrying and searching for her since she ran away from home on Friday.

"She ran away because she wanted to be free; she wanted to hang out; she wanted to be with her friends," said Crystal's stepfather, Junior Rodriguez, 38.

"She has run away before. Every time she ran away, she came back home. This time, she's not coming back," he said, sobbing.

He last saw his stepdaughter, a student at Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy in the Bronx, on Saturday night at her boyfriend's house, but he could not persuade her to come home with him.

"'I ain't going. I want to have my freedom,'" Crystal told Rodriguez, he said.