The Latest: Police: 3 dead, 1 missing after car enters canal

MIDDLETOWN, Del. – The Latest on the car in a Delaware canal (all times local):

7:15 p.m.

Authorities say they’ve recovered the bodies of an 18-year-old male driver and two boys who had been riding in a car that plunged into a Delaware canal.

Delaware State Police say five people in all were in the car when it went into the waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal shortly after 9:40 a.m. Sunday.

Authorities say a 16-year-old girl made it safely to shore with the help of the 18-year-old, but the driver re-entered the waters seeking to rescue the three remaining passengers and died.

Police say the driver’s body was found in the water a short time later and that the bodies of two boys, ages 12 and 16, were still in the vehicle when it was pulled from the canal Sunday afternoon. They say a 6-year-old boy in the car wasn’t located and remains unaccounted for.

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5:50 p.m.

An 18-year-old man is dead, three boys are unaccounted for and a 16-year-old girl is safe after the car they were riding in plunged into a canal Sunday in Delaware, authorities said.

Delaware State Police are investigating why and how the car entered the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Master Cpl. Michael Austin would not say whether the three boys — ages 6, 12 and 16 — are presumed dead, but the effort to find them was deemed a recovery operation and not a rescue.

The car went into the water around 9:40 a.m. Sunday. The man worked to free the girl, who first responders later found sitting on the banks of the canal after a bystander called 911, the Delaware News Journal reported .

Austin said the man, who was found dead in the canal, had tried to rescue the three boys.

Teams were still working to remove the car from the water on Sunday evening.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the canal is about 35 feet (more than 10 metres) deep.

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Information from: The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., http://www.delawareonline.com