Five children were pulled unresponsive from a car that plunged into a cold retention pond on Thursday morning in a Minneapolis suburb, a city official said.
The car veered off a rain-slicked highway ramp and down an embankment into a pond that was near freezing, said Jamie Zwilling, spokesman for St. Louis Park, a suburb just west of Minneapolis. The driver, a 23-year-old woman, was able to escape and screamed for help.
It was not immediately known how long the children, aged 1 through 7, were under water, according to Zwilling. There was a "light mist" when the incident occurred at 6:10 a.m. and the ramp was wet but not icy, he said.
The car, a small 4-door sedan, traveled about 40 yards down the embankment. A man from a nearby apartment tried jumping into the water, but wasn't able to get to the children. Rescue workers arrived four minutes after a 911 call was made by a passerby, and a tow truck pulled the car out of the water, Zwilling said.
"We're not sure how long the children were under," Zwilling said, adding that he did not know the relationship of the driver to the children.
Neither a Highway Patrol representative nor a spokeswoman for Hennepin County Medical Center were immediately available for comment.
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