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Updated 3pm

THREE CHILDREN UNDER the age of six have died after the car they were travelling in plunged into a lake in Australia.

Another child is in a critical condition, and the female driver of the car is under police guard in hospital.

Emergency services were called to the scene in Wyndham Vale, a suburb of Melbourne, at 3.40pm local time.

Several passerbys stopped to help, along with police, breaking the windows to rescue the children trapped inside and administering CPR.

The car was semi-submerged around 10 metres into the lake.

One child died at the scene, one died en route to hospital and the surviving two were airlifted to hospital with serious injuries, but a third child subsequently died there. It’s not yet known if the driver of the car is their mother.

She was rescued and her condition at Melbourne Hospital is described as stable.

The cause of the accident is unknown and detectives from the Major Collision Investigation unit are currently investigating.

Superintendent Stuart Bateson described the incident as “a really harrowing investigation” into “a tragic set of circumstances”.

Read: 24-year-old released without charge after arrest over toddler hit and run >