Survivor: I just kept floating up

An 8-year-old girl who escaped her family’s sinking vehicle after it plunged into a river in Australia, killing her Kiwi mother and two siblings, has spoken of the horrific ordeal.

New Zealand woman Stephanie King, 43, tried to save her three children after her van crashed off a muddy road and sank into the flooded Tweed River in northern New South Wales earlier this month.

But only Chloe-may Kabealo survived.

‘‘I unbuckled my seatbelt and I tried to go up for air,’’ Chloe-may said at a community event for the family. ‘‘And I just kept floating up out of something, and then I got out.’’

She swam to the riverbank before heading to the nearest farmhouse where locals helped her.

‘‘They just took me in, and lent me some clean clothes and cleaned up the cuts on my feet.’’

Chloe-may paid tribute to her mother, younger brother and older sister.

‘‘They were all loved and they will never be forgotten,’’ she said.

Her father, Matthew Kabealo, said he was ‘‘shattered’’ by the deaths of King and their two children, 7-year-old Jacob and 11-yearold Ella-jane.

‘‘I’m just being strong for my daughter,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re just going to get through it the best we can.’’

Police hailed King for her efforts to save her children after her Hyundai van veered off a muddied road and into the swollen Tweed River on April 3.

Police said she was found clutching one of her children when the car was retrieved.

The tragedy sent shockwaves through their local community.

A Gofundme page for the family has raised more than A$150,000 [NZ$161,000]. –