Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Michel Leidig, Agency: Central European News

Two triplet siblings have tragically drowned in their neighbour’s garden after they ran across the street while their parents were resting and mistook a fish pond for a paddling pool.

The incident took place in the town of Greven in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia when the triplets aged 2 took advantage of their mum taking a nap and their dad having nodded off too to run across the street with their other triplet, and their older sister.

The four children made their way across the road and found the neighbour’s garden had access to a pond that had goldfish in it.

They reportedly mistook it for a paddling pool like the one they had on their balcony.

The neighbour discovered the sibling’s lifeless bodies in the water at 4:15pm.

They alerted the emergency services who arrived on the scene and immediately started resuscitation procedures.

The young children, a boy and a girl, were taken to the University Hospital in the nearby city of Munster in a critical condition. Both children died, first the boy, then the girl, according to the public prosecutor.

Police investigating the incident determined that no duty of care had been violated and that it was a tragic accident.

The neighbour, as well as the young children’s family, who have not been named but who are from Albania, are in a state of shock and being treated by experts, reports said.

A relative told German newspaper Bild: “The children were used to the water, always playing in the paddling pool on the balcony. So they thought the pond was a pool and thought they could bathe in it. They drowned.”