BROOKLYN — A 2-year-old girl drowned Saturday afternoon after she went missing from a family gathering in Prospect Park and plunged into the lake, police said.
Ruhshona Kurbonova was with a group of relatives near the boathouse when she wandered off with a 2-year-old male cousin about 1:10 p.m., an NYPD spokesman said.
When relatives realized the pair had gone missing, Ruhshona's panicked mother called 911 and told dispatchers she feared that her daughter may have tumbled into the lake, police said.
Police began an hourslong search, and divers eventually pulled Ruhshona's limp body from the murky water just after 6 p.m., according to police and The New York Times.
She was pronounced dead at the scene. She died from an accidental drowning, the city's medical examiner's office said.
Ruhshona's cousin was found near the lake soaked and covered in algae but unharmed, the New York Post reported.
Ruhshona's mother was so overcome with grief that she had to be wheeled away on a stretcher by paramedics, the Post reported.
Relatives and friends gathered at the family's Bensonhurst home Sunday to pay their respects, the Times reported.
