A schoolgirl tragically drowned while cooling off in a reservoir with her friends.

Chutima Samaknarong, 6, wandered away from her home to go paddling in the large pond in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast Thailand, on August 24.

She ventured from the banks but misjudged the water's depth and slipped into a deeper section of the reservoir.

Her terrified friends, also mere schoolchildren, said they tried to reach out to the drowning girl before she sank. They ran back to their village to call for help.

A rescue team combed the reservoir and found the missing child within 10 minutes. They collected her body from the bottom of a 13ft part of the pond.

Heartbreaking footage shows Chutima's grief-stricken mother wailing in anguish as the girl's corpse was pulled onto land.

Pisit Pongsirisuphakul, director of the Hook 31 rescue foundation, said: 'The pond where this happened is a deep reservoir created by digging up soil to sell.

'The water level in the pond had recently become so low that a dirt path leading to the centre emerged, where the three children had played.

'Because the pond was dug up, it had varying depths. The point where the girl's body was found was four metres (13 feet) deep.

'Furthermore, there was no rescue equipment and no nearby residents, preventing anyone from reaching the area in time.'

In Thailand, drowning in ponds, reservoirs, and rivers is a significant public health issue, particularly for young children. These water bodies often lack safety features like fencing, warning signs, and life-saving equipment, which increases the risk of accidental drownings.

The Ministry of Public Health found that drowning is the leading cause of death among children under 15, with deep ponds and reservoirs being major hazards due to their accessibility and sometimes unpredictable water depths.

Data shows that around 1,500 people drown annually in the country and a large proportion of those cases involve young children who accidentally fall into water retention structures or ponds near their homes.