2 Kids' Bodies Pulled From Construction Site Collapse

A construction site accident in rural North Carolina did indeed claim the lives of two children, a 13-hour search involving more than 100 people has revealed. A wall of dirt fell on cousins who'd been playing in a hole at the excavated site, reports the Charlotte Observer. The body of the 6-year-old girl was uncovered around 6am, and that of the 7-year-old boy about an hour later. The kids were trapped under roughly 24 feet of dirt.

Now officials are investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred about 20 miles northwest of Charlotte, USA Today reports. According to the sheriff, the boy's father had been using a backhoe to dig near where the children were playing; he reportedly placed the first 911 call. "There were several thousand pounds of dirt on top of them," the sheriff told the Observer. Adds an emergency management rep for the county, "These are horrific circumstances."