Three children were found dead in the surf off Brooklyn, at Coney Island boardwalk in New York, early on Monday and police believe they may have been drowned by their mother. The bodies of a boy, 7, a girl, 4 and a 3-month-old girl were found after a nearly three-hour search that began at 1.40am when a relative called police, worried that the mother was intending to harm her children. The mother was found 90 minutes later, barefoot and wet, three kilometres down the boardwalk from the section of Coney Island where she lived. Detectives were on Monday questioning the woman at a local police station. “So far, she’s not said anything,” said NYPD chief of department Kenneth Corey. The search for the children intensified after the mother was found alone. Police sent a helicopter and marine units. The children were eventually found at the water’s edge shortly after 4.30am on a quiet section of beach near the stadium where the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team plays its games. Efforts to revive all three at a nearby hospital failed, Mr Corey said. Police did not immediately identify the children nor the mother, 30. The bodies were found only three blocks from the woman’s apartment, which police had visited when the search began. Mr Corey said the mother had not been reported to authorities previously for abusing or neglecting her children. She has not yet been charged with any crime.