A 5-year-old nearly drowned in a New Jersey lake, before a group of brave bystanders and cops sprung to rescue her.
The little girl was inside Newark’s Branch Brook Park on Sunday afternoon and fell into the lake near a boathouse at the southern portion of the park, the Essex County Sheriff’s Office said.
Parkgoers and police officers at the scene rushed to pull the preschooler out of the water, officials said.
The girl was breathing and conscious when she was pulled from the lake; EMS rushed her to nearby University Hospital, according to authorities.
She appeared to sneak off and waded into the lake while her grandfather was busy buckling a sibling into the family’s car, the sheriff’s office said.
Earlier this week, two other Jersey kids fatally drowned in the nearby Passaic River.
A boy, 10, his sister, 11, and their female pal, 10, went into the water near Pulaski Park on Wednesday – and the boy and their friend tragically died, WABC reported.
