UPDATE:

Authorities are investigating the collapse of a deep pit that buried two young cousins at a home construction site in North Carolina.

The bodies of 6-year-old Chloe Jade Arwood and 7-year-old James Levi Caldwell were pulled Monday from a 24-foot-deep pit in the town of Stanley, outside of Charlotte.

Crews had been searching for the children since Sunday afternoon, when the girl’s father Jordan Arwood called 911 to report the collapse. Officials were on the scene within minutes but couldn’t get to the children.

Lincoln County Sheriff David Carpenter says investigators are following up on reports from neighbors that the father was digging the two-story-deep pit for some type of protective bunker.

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(AP) — Authorities are still searching for the bodies of two children who were trapped when dirt fell on them while playing in a hole at a home construction site near Charlotte.

Lincoln County Emergency Management officials say a father of one of the children called 911 Sunday afternoon. The Charlotte Observer reported that Jordan Caldwell told operators he saw the dirt collapse on the 6-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy.

Officials say crews were on the scene within minutes but couldn’t get to the children, who were trapped about 20 feet below a new home that was under construction.

Neighbors told the newspaper a man building the home had been digging with a backhoe earlier in the day.

Authorities said late Sunday they didn’t expect to find the children alive.