Four young boys‚ aged 5‚ 13‚ and twins aged 10‚ drowned on Monday afternoon in a pool formed by recent rains near Richards Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Another boy‚ who had accompanied the four victims‚ noticed that they were in difficulty in the water‚ and ran to summon his elders for assistance.

The ward councillor contacted the police.

The Zululand Observer reported that Empangeni police search and rescue divers arrived at the pool in the rural Mabuyeni area‚ approximately 20km north of Empangeni‚ to recover the bodies.

The pool was two metres deep.

A police official‚ who spoke on condition of anonymity‚ said that in rural areas where many children could not swim‚ any body of water deeper than 1.5 metres posed a real danger.

A large crowd of community members gathered around the pool as divers worked‚ among them relatives of the victims. The Zululand Observer published video footage of the bodies being removed from the water.

The names of the victims have not been released.