Two children found dead after being swept away from their mum in a river
Two children in California were killed at a family gathering after getting swept away by the Kings River.
The children, only identified as an eight-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy, followed their mother into the river on Sunday afternoon, who was trying to swim to a specific rock to climb on.
According to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, neither child was wearing a life jacket.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene around 2.00pm near the Pine Flat Dam in Sanger, California.
Search and rescue crews used boats, drones, and a helicopter to comb the area south of the dam. They quickly located the girl’s body less than an hour after the search began.
The boy remained missing for another day as crews desperately searched for any sign of the four-year-old. His body was eventually found about 1.75 miles downriver from the spot he swept away from.
‘Both the Kings and San Joaquin Rivers are closed to recreational users and have been since March 14th, 2023,’ the Sheriff’s Office said. ‘Sheriff John Zanoni made this decision in response to heavy winter storms and melting snow that have created high water levels and hazardous conditions.’
California saw an unusually large amount of snow last winter, including a series of ‘atmospheric river’ storms that drenched the Golden State earlier this year.
Public access sites at the rivers in Fresno County have been marked by warning signs in multiple languages, and disobeying this order could net swimmers a $250 fine.
The Sheriff’s Office said there was currently ‘no timetable’ for reopening the rivers for recreation, but also said they were monitoring water levels daily to make that determination.
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