On a bridge overpass in northern New Jersey, a miracle occurred this week amid tragedy. A distraught father jumped over an eight-foot suicide prevention fence that lines the bridge. The man took his two small sons with him — and somehow, the children survived.

It is not clear how the father scaled the fence with the two little ones. Authorities surmise he may have thrown the boys over the fence before going over himself, according to the Asbury Park Press.

“God intervened, and two souls were saved.”

All three should have been killed by the 100-foot fall. Instead, the little boys — ages three and one — survived.

“No one knows what this man was struggling with, but a father is meant to protect children, not hurt them,” said one Boston, Massachusetts, dad of three. “God intervened, and two souls were saved.”

Local police feel the same way.

“When the officers found the children conscious and alert, it was nothing short of a miracle, that’s for sure,” Pequannock Township police Capt. Christopher DePuyt said Tuesday.

At 6:55 p.m. Monday, police in Pequannock, New Jersey, received a call from a woman saying her husband had threatened to harm their children, local authorities said. The couple had argued, she told police, and the husband then got into their SUV, taking their two young sons with him — and drove away.

The father was identified by New Jersey State Police Tuesday as 37-year-old John Spincken, CBS New York reported.

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Using Spincken’s cellphone GPS data, law enforcement tracked the SUV to Interstate 287, and the overpass that spans the Wanaque River.

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The vehicle was empty. Police scrambled down to the wooded terrain below the overpass and near the river. They found the father dead. The little boys, miraculously, were not — they were injured but conscious. Police believe tree branches helped cushion their fall, according to WCBS 880.

The children were taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center with injuries not considered life-threatening, state police said. The toddlers were admitted to a hospital with concussions and several bumps and bruises, and the younger child suffered a bruised lung, reported Philly.com.

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Authorities have learned that Spincken was under severe financial strain, according to CBS News. Neighbors were in shock and said nothing had seemed amiss with the family, who appeared loving and devoted.

“Something really had to go wrong. They looked loving. They really did,” neighbor Abe Balasis told reporters.