UPDATED: Thursday, Apr. 9, 11:00 a.m. AEST
Three children have died after a car veered off a road and plunged into a lake in Melbourne, Australia.
A 35-year-old woman was driving the vehicle with four young children inside, when it crashed into the water at Wyndham Vale on Wednesday afternoon, according to Victoria Police. Police have confirmed the woman is the mother of the deceased children, who are a four-year-old boy, a four-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy.
One child was declared dead at the scene, while another died being transported to hospital and the third died in hospital. The fourth child -- a five-year-old girl -- is in a critical condition at Melbourne's Royal Children’s Hospital, while the woman has been discharged from Royal Melbourne Hospital and will be interviewed by police on Thursday.
A witness told Fairfax Radio that a man jumped into the water and tried to smash the back windscreen of the car. He managed to get one little boy out. "It's just a horrible scene," the caller said.
It is not yet known what caused the car to plunge into the river, but the witness said it went through shrub before landing in the water.
Superintendent Stuart Bateson told the Herald Sun "we don't know how, we don't know why," and that an investigation has been launched. He said witnesses saw the car leave the road, before some children were pulled from the vehicle and CPR was attempted.
"It is pretty early in our investigation,” Bateson said. “What we do know is that we have a very tragic set of circumstances here and it is going to be a very harrowing investigation.”
JUST IN: Third child has died after a car crashed into a lake in #Melbourne's west this afternoon #7News pic.twitter.com/dj6OqPECGv— 7News Brisbane (@7NewsBrisbane) April 8, 2015