A mother and two children who died after drowning in a river have been identified.
Emergency services rushed to the boat ramp on Shearer Park off Hollywood Drive, Lansvale, in Sydney‘s south west, on the Georges River at 10.15am on Saturday, following reports a woman and two children were in the water ‘in distress’.
Haoi, 32, was pulled from the water but could not be revived and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Following a massive water search, the bodies of her two children Mitchell and Hazel Nguyen, aged seven and five, were recovered from the water several hours later.
Vietnamese woman Haoi, 32, and her two children Mitchell and Hazel Nguyen, aged seven and five, drowned in the Georges River on Saturday
Friends and family have shared touching tributes to the trio on social media.
‘It’s very painful… my friend and two kids (were) suddenly lost today,’ one friend wrote on Facebook.
‘Two days ago I just talked to you (I am) waiting for you to come back.’
A GoFundMe campaign, started to help raise money for the funeral costs, revealed Haoi’s husband, and father to Mitchell and Hazel, has been left to raise their one-year-old child Macario on his own.
‘I am reaching out to you during a time of unimaginable sorrow,’ Sarah Vu wrote.
‘A beloved mother and her two young children tragically drowned today in Lansvale leaving behind a profound void in our hearts and a father and baby who is only one years old.
‘We hope to raise funds to aid the funeral and to assist the father to look after young Macario in this time of grief.
‘Every contribution, no matter how small, will make a significant difference.’
Acting Super Intendant Luke Scott from Fairfield City police said the tragedy was ‘beyond words’ with police now investigating the circumstances surrounding how the trio ended up in the water.
‘Police and a number of bystanders conducted an immediate search operation for that female and two children,’ Detective Scott said.
‘It’s beyond words, how tragic it would have been for people who observed what happened and also for the family.
‘A number of the bystanders made their own attempts to rescue the children and their mother but unfortunately they weren’t successful in that.’
More to come…
