The two children were identified as Charlotte Trotter, 4, and Sebastian Trotter, 7, according to their aunt Tiffanie Wyatt. She said their father, Sebastian Trotter, a solder based at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and their mother, Stephanie, both suffered serious injuries but survived and were receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Texas.

The 7-year-old and 4-year-old who died after flash flooding overtook a village in New Mexico earlier this week have been identified as Sebastian and Charlotte Trotter, the children of a U.S. army soldier,

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency for the village of Ruidoso, in an area that was scarred by wildfires last year.

The neighbouring state of Texas also experienced a major flood just a few days earlier, but with a very different outcome. The ferocity of the inundation in Texas caught forecasters and state officials by surprise, killing at least 119 people.