As many as three children have have been pictured drowning inside a pond after two tried to save one who fell in the water.
The kids drowned
These are the heartbreaking images which reportedly show three young siblings drowning in a pond — after one fell in and the others tried to rescue him.
According to The Sun UK, two girls and a boy — aged four, three and three — went into the water one after the other and failed to resurface.
Security footage shows the kids playing at the water's edge in the village of Shangtang in China’s southern Guangdong province.
One of the children slips over the edge and plunges into the pond.
The other two are left staring into the water where he fell.
One child then climbs down into the pond, apparently in an effort to rescue her sibling.
Then the third child follows, stepping over the edge and disappearing under the water.
Other video footage — too distressing to publish — shows rescuers hauling the youngsters' limp bodies from the pond.
Investigators have deemed it a tragic accident, but the children’s guardians could still face charges of negligence for allowing them to play on their own near the water.
The siblings’ names have yet to be released, and police did not say whether any arrests were made.