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Members of the Urbana Fire Department prepare to transport 12-year-old Chancelor Eckelbarger to Mercy Memorial Medical Center late Saturday after flood waters pulled him into a drainage pipe in the 4000 block of West U.S. 36. The boy was pronounced dead at the hospital.Click to enlarge

Madison Twp., Ohio — A 12-year-old Urbana boy died late Saturday after he was pulled into a drainage pipe while playing in flash-flood waters after a heavy thunderstorm.

Chancelor Eckelbarger and a group of friends were playing in a culvert/ditch in the 4000 block of West U.S. 36 shortly after a thunderstorm dumped high, fast moving water in the area, said Champaign County Sheriff Brent A. Emmons. The boy was pulled into a drainage pipe by the current and disappeared under the water. The drainage system reportedly traveled underneath Ohio 560 and emptied into a crop field area.

Emergency personnel were dispatched around 10:47 p.m. and immediately began to search for the boy.

Shortly before midnight, a local resident, who had joined the search, located him in a flooded cornfield and carried him to medics on the scene. He was taken to Mercy Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0347 or kmori@coxohio.com.