4 kids die after Amish buggy swept away in creek

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP)

A horse-drawn buggy carrying an Amish family home from dinner and using a community telephone toppled in a rain-swollen creek in rural Kentucky, killing four children who were swept away in the swift-moving water, authorities said Friday.

The group was traveling in a downpour in the dark Thursday about 8:30 p.m. CST when the buggy flipped just a mile from their house. The buggy was crossing a creek that is normally a trickle, but often floods during heavy rains.

Those killed were a 5-month-old; a 5-year-old; a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old girl. Three of the children were siblings and one was a cousin. Their names have not been released.

Two adults and three other children escaped. The horse that was pulling the buggy also survived.

The father of the 11-year-old girl killed told The Associated Press the family had traveled a few miles to his house despite rainy weather to use an Amish community phone. Afterward, the families shared supper before Emanuel Wagler, 29, and his family started for home.

"That's the main reason they came out," Samuel Wagler told The Associated Press. "To call my dad."

The two brothers call their father in Missouri every couple of months.

Samuel Wagler's daughter, Elizabeth, planned to spend the night with her cousins and joined them for the ride home to his brother's farm, he said.