Johnson County officials on Monday were investigating the drowning of a 7-year-old girl and injuries that sent four others to the hospital.
Sheriff Larry Jones said the sheriff's office got a call at 5:21 p.m. Sunday that the girl had drowned while swimming in the Mulberry River in a remote location off Arkansas 103 near Oark.
Two boys who also had suffered water-related injuries were flown to a hospital in Little Rock, he said. A woman and a girl were taken by ambulance to Johnson County Regional Medical Center in Clarksville. Jones did not release any names or conditions of the people involved.
Jones said the girl's mother told him the family was having an outing at the river. Some children and adults were walking along the river and swimming. He said details were unclear to him Monday afternoon and he was still trying to determine what happened.
The Johnson County Dive Team was among the agencies that responded to the call for help, but did not go in the water. Jones said the girl had been pulled from the water by the time authorities began arriving on the scene.
Despite the rain over the past week, Jones said the water level of the river did not seem high. A witness told him, though, that the current was swift.
The girl's body was being sent to the Arkansas State medical examiner's office for autopsy, Jones said.
Metro on 07/11/2017