Updated

Authorities say two young brothers are dead after one started struggling while playing in water in northern Indiana and the other fell in while trying to rescue him.

Conservation officers responded Sunday to a muddy creek known as Redinger Ditch in Marshall County. By the time they arrived, the Department of Natural Resources says, 12-year-old Kenneth Martin and 13-year-old Mahlon Martin were dead.

The DNR says several young people were playing in or near the ditch when one began struggling and the others formed a "human chain" to reach him. That's when the other boy fell. The DNR didn't say which brother fell in first.

Conservation Officer Cpl. Ken Dowdle tells WSBT-TV that the others in the group did what they could and that he's "proud of their rescue effort."