6 skating children drown after ice breaks in northern China

USPA News - Six young children who were skating on a frozen river in a rural area of northern China drowned on Saturday when the ice broke, state-run media reported on Sunday. It took several hours before the victims were recovered from the water.

The incident happened at around 4:45 p.m. local time on Saturday when six children between the ages of 5 and 11 were ice skating on a section of the Huiji River in Nanzheng village, located in Shanxi province. Photos from the scene showed the ice was very thin and it was not immediately known of the children were accompanied by any adults. The state-run Xinhua news agency said four of the children were taken from the water about 1.5 hour after the accident, while the remaining two were not found until 7:30 p.m. that evening. All victims were rushed to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead, Xinhua said. Other details were not immediately available.