A three-year-old girl has died after falling from a boat in the Hawkesbury River.
The toddler was found floating in the water off Dangar Island, near Brooklyn on Tuesday (9 July) afternoon.
Police were responding to reports of a child missing from a vessel when they discovered the girl.
Paramedics rushed to the scene to treat the child, who was then airlifted to Westmead Hospital, Sydney, in critical condition.
She was pronounced dead on arrival.
Sue Dorahy, NSW Ambulance acting zone manager for the Central Coast, told 9News that paramedics who turned up were met with ‘a chaotic scene.’
She said, ‘The child was not breathing. Our paramedics did an exceptional resuscitation effort on the child, worked extensively for a number of minutes and the helicopter arrived.
‘These scenes are always very, very confronting when it involves children and any water-based job that does involve a child is always very chaotic.
‘It always reminds us to be very diligent with children around water.’