A tragic accident in Uzbekistan's Samarkand Region has claimed the lives of four children after an electric cargo moped carrying eight people plunged into a canal.

The incident occurred on May 31. Local residents rushed to the scene and managed to rescue four of the passengers, but four children died as a result of the accident, The Caspian Post reports via Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Preliminary findings revealed that the driver, a 41-year-old resident of the Ukrach neighborhood in Pakhtachi District, was transporting a total of eight people on the electric moped. Among them were his wife and six minors, including his own children and children from a neighboring household.

The circumstances surrounding how the vehicle entered the canal have not yet been fully established.