Two 4-year-old girls drowned Monday in Barrow, where the fall bowhead whale hunt began a few days ago, North Slope Borough police say.

Molly Koonaloak and Gwendolyn Gordon, both of Barrow, were playing on Esatkuat Lagoon near the town's elementary school when they apparently fell through the thin ice at sometime before 2:45 p.m. Monday, according to police and residents of Barrow.

Police rescued the girls from the icy water and began life-saving efforts. They were taken to Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, and then medevaced to Anchorage, where they were pronounced dead on arrival, police say.

"They were sledding on a lagoon and, unfortunately, went through the ice and drowned," said Mary Sage, manager of the Arctic Education Foundation.

Sage said Barrow residents thought the girls were being revived, so it was very disappointing to learn they died. "It just happened last night, and people found out this morning that they didn't make it, so people are pretty shocked," she said.

Rose Hirt, an employee of Barrow High School, also said word of the deaths was beginning to spread through the community Tuesday.

"It's sad," Hirt said. "It's awful."

Hirt said she was told the girls' sled had been discovered near a hole in the ice, but that no one saw them go through. The lagoon's surface had just started to freeze, she added.

"There's ice on the lagoon, but it's not thick at all," Hirt said. "I wouldn't even think about walking on it."

Both girls were preschool students at Fred Ipalook Elementary School, which sits near the shore of the lagoon. There are 609 students enrolled at the school, 80 of them preschoolers.

The tragedy comes close on the heels of a community celebration. Barrow, a town of more than 5,000 that sits just 1,311 miles below the North Pole, began its fall whaling season over the weekend. Whalers landed four bowheads on Saturday.

Contact Maia Nolan at maia@alaskadispatch.com and Josh Saul at jsaul@alaskadispatch.com