A young girl drowned and another is fighting for her life in hospital following a birthday pool party.
The two three-year-old girls were among eight other kids and three adults at the party in Tampa, Florida on Saturday.
The celebration was taking place in a complex's communal pool where the two girls found themselves in trouble on the water.
They somehow removed their inflatables or they got loose and slipped off, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said, casting the two girls who couldn't swim into the water unaided.
By the time the adults noticed something was wrong the two children were under water, witnesses said.
When the alarm went up several adults rushed into the water and dragged the girls out.
They performed CPR on the three-year-olds until paramedics arrived.
Both girls were taken to hospital where one was pronounced dead.
The other is currently in a critical condition.
Resident Addison Vicedo told WTSP that what he realised what he thought was the sound of children playing turned out to be screams.
“I noticed that everyone was there panicking and the mother was in tears so I just told myself not to panic because I could do something," he said.
“I started giving CPR to the little girl and then I noticed that her pulse she did have a pulse and she would make it.
“My prayers go out to both of their families. Especially the one who didn't make it.”
From 2005 to 2014 there were 3,536 fatal drownings not related to boating in the US, which equates to about 10 deaths a day.
One in five of those were children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
