An 18-year-old woman drowned Monday after she rescued several children from rough water in a Minnesota lake, authorities said.
A group of children was swimming at Clearwater Lake, near the northern Minnesota township of Sinclair, on Monday afternoon when "some of them were caught up in the turbulent water that was coming over the dam," the Clearwater County Sheriff's Office said in Facebook post.
"The water level at the dam was considerably higher due to the large amount of rain received recently," the sheriff's office said.
Several of the children could not free themselves and the 18-year-old helped pull them to safety before she went under the water, witnesses told authorities. She was underwater for about 10 minutes, witnesses said.
An 8-year-old girl pulled from the water was initially unresponsive, but witnesses performed CPR and were able to resuscitate the child, the sheriff's office said.
Witnesses performed CPR on the 18-year-old near the river, but she could not be revived.
"All life saving measures were performed, but medics were not able to resuscitate the eighteen-year-old," according to the sheriff's office, which said it was waiting to release her name.
The sheriff's office Facebook post was filled with comments calling the woman a hero.
"So very sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families," one person wrote. "She will be remembered as a hero!"
Another commented, "I truly hope her family can find comfort in knowing their daughter, loved one, died being a hero so that the babies could live on."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.