AUBURN – Three kids and two adults escaped serious injury Thursday when the boat they were in capsized in the Androscoggin River.

The small skiff flipped in rapids along Route 136 after drifting quickly downstream in swift current, police Sgt. James Robicheau said.

Bertrand Gagnon, 68, of Lewiston was taking his grandchildren fishing. He put the metal boat in at Canal Street. The boat had been anchored, but it let go and Gagnon lost control of it when “the current got the better of them,” Robicheau said.

All five fell out into the rapids, then let the current carry them to shore at a bend in the river, Robicheau said. All appeared to have worn life jackets.

One of the grandchildren, Ben Gagnon, 11, of Gardiner, was carried from the scene on a stretcher and transported by ambulance for medical treatment for an ankle he injured when climbing out of the water, Robicheau said.