BEIJING -- Four boys drowned off the coast of southern China this weekend while searching for duck eggs in a bay, officials said.

The city of Beihai in the southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region said in a statement online that the four boys, three of them aged 12 and one of them 11, were searching in a city bay Saturday afternoon when they drowned.

They were part of a group of eight boys that went egg hunting. Two of them drowned and two went missing, prompting a search. Later, authorities found two additional bodies.

Local authorities said they were consoling parents of the boys.

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