'Real tragic': 2 kids hospitalized after being pulled from icy Palatine pond, police say

PALATINE, Ill. (WLS) -- Two children had to be rescued after they fell into an icy pond in the northwest suburbs Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities could not give us their condition, but witnesses say both were underwater for several minutes.

Palatine firefighters pulled two boys from the water in the 800-block of Panorama Drive around 3:31 p.m., police said.

Witnesses could only watch helplessly as fire department divers mounted a frantic search.

"I don't know, like a feeling I never felt in my life, like seeing two kids like that, going through that type of stuff," said Deandre Boatman.

Boatman said around 2:30 p.m., he heard a woman screaming at the Palatine apartment complex, "The Clayson," which surrounds a pond.

"So we ran out the house, and then when we ran out the house, we looked to the left, and we just see two kids like trying to gasp for air, trying to come up out the water," Boatman recalled.

Boatman said his brother-in-law and the mother of the two boys, who had apparently fallen through the ice, tried to get to the children but the ice was too thin and the water too cold.

All they could do was wait for rescue teams.

Witnesses said one of the boys, who appeared to be about 4 years old, was under water for about 10 minutes before rescue divers found him.

A neighbor captured the moment divers found the second boy. ABD has blurred the video of the child.

Witnesses said that child, who appeared to be around 7 years old, was under water for about 20 minutes.

"It was real tragic, like one of the most tragic things I've ever witnessed in my life," Boatman said.

Both boys were rushed to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.

Police are investigating how the boys ended up on that pond, which neighbors said had frozen over during last week's cold snap. Residents said there are warning signs to stay out of the water.