An 8-year-old boy has died in a swimming pool at a Pennsylvania amusement park, officials said on Saturday.
The Knoebels Amusement Park & Resort, in a statement, said the unnamed boy was found unresponsive by a lifeguard after lying in three feet of water for several minutes on Saturday at 3 p.m. local time. Emergency care was initialized by the lifeguard.
The boy was later transferred to the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
He was Yassin Boudriss, of Lebanon, according to Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn, via The Daily Item.
“The Knoebel family and team members had been hoping and praying for the best possible outcome, but are saddened to have learned from local authorities that the young boy has passed away,” the park said in a statement. “Please join us in keeping the boy’s family in your prayers.”
Lynn told The Daily Item that the boy may have been affected by an unspecified medical condition before he entered the pool. Locust Township Police Patrolman Anthony Kopitsky told the paper that the coroner is investigating several causes of death and whether it was accidental.
An autopsy is slated for Monday.
The Knoebels Amusement Resort, in Elysburg, has been called America’s largest free-admission park.
“Next thing I know, there’s a golf cart behind us whistling, so he came through and I told Kathy (her daughter), ‘I wonder if there’s an emergency,’ and at that time I noticed he had the red light golf cart in the pool area,” witness Lucille Colburn told WNEP-TV.
“As a mother, I couldn’t imagine,” Kathryn Colburn, a mother of two, told the broadcaster. “My babies are my everything. I couldn’t imagine.”
