A 4-year-old girl and her 2-year-old brother died Tuesday after they were swept downstream by a fast-moving stream in the San Bernardino National Forest near Forest Falls, authorities said.
The children were playing at the Therman Flats picnic area Tuesday afternoon, not far from the banks of Mill Creek, when their mother noticed the 4-year-old boy missing while tending to her 2-year-old son, according to reports. a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
The mother searched for her daughter but could not find her, authorities said. When she returned to the place where she had left her son, he was also missing.
Authorities said the woman desperately asked for help finding her children, but other people in the park were also unable to locate them, according to the statement.
Local search and rescue teams soon became involved, including the San Bernardino Sheriff's Air Rescue and the U.S. Forest Service Rescue Team. About 40 minutes later, both children were found downstream near the creek bank. .
They were transported to local hospitals but were soon pronounced dead, authorities said. The names of her mother and children were not revealed.
