Four children in critical condition after falling through ice at Solihull lake in Babbs Mill Park

ITV News' Lewis Warner has the latest developments from Solihull

Four children who were pulled from a lake at Babbs Mill Park in Solihull were in cardiac arrest and taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Emergency services were called to Babbs Mill Park at 2.36pm on Sunday, with reports from the scene and social media indicating that children had been playing on the ice and had fallen through.

Local fire, police and ambulance chiefs told an emergency press conference on Sunday the children were taken to hospital on blue lights after receiving treatment at the scene.

Emergency services were also made aware that up to six people may have been in the water, with specialist rescue teams set to continue searching the lake overnight.

Cameron McVittie, a tactical commander with West Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "On being rescued, the four children were taken under blue lights to hospital with an advanced care team."

Mr McVittie said: "Two were taken to Birmingham Children’s Hospital and two to Heartlands in Birmingham. All four children were in critical condition on arrival."

He added: "There are no updates. They are all in critical condition when they arrived in hospital."

"Unfortunately, the children in the water were in cardiac arrest and were receiving advanced life support en route to hospital," he added.

When asked if they know how long the children were in the water for, Mr McVittie said: "Unfortunately not at this stage."

Meanwhile, West Midlands Fire Service said police officers and members of the public were trying to reach and rescue the children.

Speaking at a press conference, the fire service's area commander Richard Stanton said reports from the scene and social media indicated "a number of children had been playing on the ice on a lake and had fallen through the ice".

He said: "When our firefighters arrived, a number of police officers and members of the public were in the water trying to reach and rescue the children."

Mr Stanton adds: "Our crews entered the water, swam to the first child and our specialist-trained firefighters, including technical rescue, rescued three further children.

"The children were brought out of the water where they received immediate life-support care from firefighters and our ambulance colleagues."

Superintendent Richard Harris, of West Midlands Police, said that officers from all the emergency services went into the water to help the rescue, with a police officer subsequently being taken to hospital.

Mr Harris said: "When officers first arrived on the scene, they went into the lake, together with fire and ambulance colleagues. It was a combined effort of all officers going into the lake to try to rescue them."

The press conference heard that one of the police officers suffered mild hypothermia and is making a "full recovery" in hospital.

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