Trapped kids were found dead in Stanley, North Carolina after a young boy and girl were buried alive Sunday by dirt while playing in an open hole at a home construction site, the Clarion Ledger reported. The children were recovered Monday by authorities from the 24-foot deep hole, news reports said.

Search crews had been looking for the trapped kids, who were cousins and neighbors, since Sunday afternoon. Once rescue units arrived, thery were unable to reach the two victims, the Examiner reported.

Chloe Jade Arwood and James Levi Caldwell, ages 6 and 7, fell into a hole, which was intended to be a basement for a new home, International Business Times reported. 

The kids were reportedly playing around an excavated basement under construction near their grandparents' home when one of the walls collapsed, trapping them.

"We worked as if they were alive," Dion Burleson, public information officer of Lincoln County Emergency Management, told the Charlotte Observer, but at 9:30 p.m. he announced that the rescue had turned into a recovery operation.

Neighbors and family members stood by watching until late Sunday night. Neighbor Sybil Johnson said she was there for the first two hours with one of the victim's brother and sister.

"They kept saying, 'They've been down there too long without air' - that's what the kids were saying up here, and I just told them God would take care of them," Johnson told NBC Charlotte.