Five children were trapped in a sunken car after it slid off of a highway ramp in the Minneapolis suburbs early Thursday morning.
The kids were submerged in a nearby holding pond for a few minutes until rescue crews could tow it out, according to authorities who spoke with the Associated Press. The children's current health status haven't been released yet, but St. Louis Park city spokesperson Jamie Zwilling said that they were unresponsive when they were first extracted from the automobile. The 23-year-old female driver pulled herself out of the car as it was swallowed into the water behind her. She was said to be in stable condition, AP reported. Her relationship to the children is not yet known, and the identities of the children won't be publicized until family members are notified.
The children - who ranged in ages 1,5,6 and 7 - were rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center after the accident, according to Lt. Eric Roeske.
The car veered off of the ramp from Highway 7 to Highway 100 in St. Louis Park at about 6:15 a.m. As rain pounded the hood of the sedan, it plummeted into the pond located just 50 yards from the road. Roeske reported that there was no guardrail between the pond and the ramp.
Witnesses nearby tried to help the children, but by the time they arrived at the scene of the accident, the automobile was 8 to 9 feet deep in "incredibly cold, nearly freezing-temperature water," Roeske said.
The fire department and the Hennepin County sheriff's dive team were called to the site soon after, and used tow trucks to extract the car from the water.
"Once the vehicle was removed from the water, we found that there were five other occupants, all children," Roeske told AP.
It is still unclear whether speed played a part in the crash, and there were no clues that pointed to the woman purposely driving the sedan into the pond.
(Note: sunken car in photo is not actual sedan from accident).
