Two children have died, and three others have been hospitalised after sleeping in a van amid Detroit’s cold weather.
A two-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy were among the five children who had been living in the vehicle, NBC News reported. Their mother had pulled into the parking garage of Hollywood Casino at Greektown at around 1 a.m. on Monday, 10 February, but ran out of fuel some time later, according to Fox 2.
She realised at around midday that her nine-year-old wasn’t breathing, CBS Detroit reported. After calling a family member for help in taking the child to hospital, she then discovered her two-year-old also wasn’t breathing.
“And so that person conveyed both children to Children’s Hospital, where they were pronounced deceased, with the early indicator being that they froze to death,” Detroit police Capt. Nathan Duda said, per NBC News.
The other three children — aged 13, 8, and 4, according to Fox 2 — were treated in hospital but are in a stable condition.
