Six non-swimming teenagers drowned after they got out of their depth while taking a dip in a US river.

The boys and girls aged between 13 and 18 stepped off a ledge from shallow water into a deep sinkhole on the Red River in Louisiana yesterday.

They included three brothers in one family and a sister and two brothers in another.

The families were in recreational area that has sand bars and is a popular picnic and fishing spot.

Shreveport Fire Chief Fred Sanders said: “They were out here with some adults. But unfortunately, neither the children nor the adults could swim.”

The group had been playing in a familiar area but ended up at a spot in the river where the bottom fell suddenly.

Mr Sanders said he did not know whether one fell and pulled down others, or if they were trying to rescue each other.

It took more than three hours to find all the bodies, he said.

“It’s devastating. The city has never experienced an incident of this magnitude.” Rescuers crews were delayed getting to the scene because the accident was initially reported in the wrong place.