Two children died after falling into an icy lake in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Tuesday, local police said on Wednesday.

Eight-year-old Guo Meng and 5-year-old Guo Xiaoyang were playing on the ice on the frozen lake of Hongshan Park in Chifeng City when the ice suddenly broke, local police said.

Police were immediately called to the scene to search for the children. The bodies of the two boys were recovered from the lake an hour later and sent to the nearest hospital where they were pronounced dead, police said.

The two boys are relatives. Their parents come from Linxi County and live in bungalows near the park.

Local police said the ice has thinned in recent weeks as temperatures have risen. China has been experiencing a warm winter, and the temperature in Chifeng was nine degrees centigrade, two degrees higher than at the same time last year.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2007)