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A THREE-YEAR-OLD boy drowned and a two-month-old baby is in critical condition when one of their relatives tried to get from Mexico to the US through the Rio Grande, a tributary currently swollen, local media reported on Wednesday.
Eagle Pass Fire Department Chief Manuel Mello reported that the incident occurred on Monday afternoon, according to an NBC affiliate based in San Antonio (Texas).
The minors were part of a group of immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande.
Border Patrol agents were near the scene when the incident occurred and assisted in the rescue. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the agents were performing CPR on the children, Mello said.
The three-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, while the infant was transported to a San Antonio hospital.
The death of the toddler follows the death of a 5-year-old Guatemalan girl on Monday when she tried to swim across the river with her mother in the area of El Paso, Texas.
Authorities in Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) recovered the body of the little girl. The mother was rescued alive, according to the specialized media Border Report.
Regarding the death of the little girl, CBP said that the people involved did not cross into the US due to the current high water level in the Rio Grande.
So far CBP has not released any information about the death of the three-year-old and the condition of the baby.
Last Wednesday, Border Patrol agents recovered the bodies of three deceased migrants in a span of four hours in an area in Del Rio, Texas. The number of migrant deaths in that area so far this fiscal year has already surpassed 200.
