JACKSON, Miss. - Five children and one adult have died after a sport utility vehicle plunged into a rain-swollen creek in eastern Mississippi.

Neshoba County Sheriff Tommy Waddell says the victims appear to have drowned after a Dodge Durango went off a county road 20 miles southeast of Philadelphia just after midnight Saturday morning.

Five siblings died. They have been identified as 9-year-old Dasyanna John, 8-year-old Duane John, 7-year-old Bobby John, 4-year-old Quinton John, and 18-month-old Kekaimeas John. Family friend Diane Chickaway also died. The sheriff says all were members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

The father of the children, Dewayne John, escaped and remains hospitalized. Their mother, Deanna Jim, and Chickaway's husband, Dale Chickaway, also survived.

Waddell says it took several hours for divers to find the submerged vehicle and pull it from the water.