Police said the auto, as well as the bodies of Leia and Seth, were recovered in the early hours of Thursday morning.
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Police, fire, ambulance and coastguard teams were all sent to the scene following the incident, which led to the temporary closure of the A816 road.
Painter and decorator Jimmy McMahon, 24, from Lochgilphead, told the newspaper: “We arrived about 10 minutes after the vehicle had hit the water”.
Iain MacKinnon, Station Officer of Oban Volunteer Coastguard team, said the vehicle was “completely submerged” in the loch when they arrived at the scene.
It is understood the children were among three people in the auto when it veered off the A816 road and into the deep water of Loch nan Druimnean in Argyll at around 4pm on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old added: ‘I saw tyre marks on the grass and across the road.
A 36-year-old woman, reported to be the children’s mother Hazel, was said to have been helped out of the water in a hysterical state. “It is a sharp bend you go round – there’s four or five corners all together at that part”.
Two Coastguard helicopters flew to the scene, with one landing as close to the shore as safely possible to shine a light into the dark water to help the rescue effort.
“Presumably the mother was swimming, trying to get to the shore, when the guy went to help her”.
Yesterday he added: “I think everybody is just completely stunned”.
“The water was bitterly cold, probably 5 or 6 degrees – that loch, it freezes over in the winter but the temperature is pretty much the same now as in the winter”.
It was unclear if he was a survivor or a passerby who had attempted a rescue.
A force spokesman said: “Inquiries are continuing to establish the exact circumstances of the incident and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal”.
Argyll and Bute SNP MSP Mike Russell said the incident has shaken people locally.
He added that cold water shock would probably have affected anyone trapped under the loch very quickly, saying: “Cold water shock grips you and it’s very hard to survive that for any amount of time”.
Nigel Mitchell, chair of Kilninver and Kilmelford Community Council, said he has known of at least four fatalities on that stretch of road in the 10 years he has lived in the area.
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Kilmelford: Emergency services searched the loch.
