Lansing ? Two children drowned Monday in a backyard swimming pool, Lansing Police Chief Steve Wayman said.

The Leintz Funeral Home in Leavenworth identified them as Nicholas Bryant Anderson and Emma McKnight.

The funeral home said both of the children were 2 years old, but Wayman said one of them was 3.

Wayman said the boy’s mother was looking after him and the girl – the daughter of a close friend – and other children. He said the two didn’t respond when she called the children for lunch, and she found them in the pool.

The mother jumped in, pulled them out and called 911. She and emergency workers who arrived at the home just northwest of the Wyandotte County line were unable to revive them. They were pronounced dead at a hospital in Leavenworth.

“Everybody did everything they could,” Wayman said.

Police were not certain how long the children had been in the pool, but initial indications were 10 to 15 minutes.

Wayman said the mother last saw the two children between 11 and 11:30 a.m., playing in the basement with three other children between the ages of 5 and 10.

The woman does not operate a day-care center, but was baby-sitting the children, Wayman said. At least one of the older children also was her child.

Wayman said police were still trying to determine what happened.