Man, 2 children dead after car plunges off Australian wharf

The bodies of two small children and a man believed to be their father were retrieved from a car that may have been deliberately driven off a wharf, where it sank in deep waters off southern Australia, police said on Monday.

Witnesses reported seeing a station wagon speeding down the wharf in the city of Port Lincoln early Monday morning before it appeared to deliberately drive off the end of it, South Australia state police said. The car quickly sank in 30 meters (100 feet) of water.

Police divers found the bodies of the man and children inside the submerged car about six hours later.

"We are not treating it as an accidental driving-off-the-wharf," Detective Superintendent Paul Yeomans told reporters.

''It's a small community. It'll be a situation where somebody will know somebody will know somebody and no doubt this will affect a lot of people living in Port Lincoln,'' he told reporters.

''You've got some relatives who have lost relatives. ''Mayor Bruce Green said he felt ''empty'' after hearing the news. ''You're just dumbfounded as to why these things can happen,'' he told AAP.

''You don't have any power in solving what’s just happened or changing what's just happened. So you just feel a little empty.''