Girl, 3, is hospitalized with second-degree burns after running off trail at Yellowstone National Park and falling into a scalding thermal pool

A three-year-old girl has suffered second-degree burns after she fell into scorching hot water in Yellowstone National Park.

The child ran off a trail Friday near Midway Geyser Basin on the park's western side then slipped and fell into a small thermal feature, park officials said.

The child was flown to a burn unit at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.

She had second-degree burns to the lower body and back.

A three-year-old child ran off a Yellowstone National Park trail Friday then slipped and fell

Details of the child's identity weren't immediately available.

Park officials were investigating the incident. 

It was the second injury in a Yellowstone thermal feature this year. A woman backing up and taking photos fell into a hot spring or fumarole near Old Faithful Geyser in May.

The woman had entered the park illegally while it was closed due to the coronavirus. 

Park officials have warned visitors to remain on the trails and boardwalks as the ground in hydrothermal areas is 'fragile and thin.' 

Prior to this year about half a dozen serious burn incidents had occurred at Yellowstone.

She was severely burned by the small thermal feature near Midway Geyser Basin

Pictured is the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park and the boardwalk

Last September a man suffered severe burns after falling into thermal water near the cone of Old Faithful Geyser. 

In June 2017, a man was severely burned after falling into a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin. 

A year prior, a man left the boardwalk and died after slipping into a hot spring in Norris Geyser Basin. 

Twenty years ago in August, one person died and two people received severe burns from falling into a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin.

'Hot springs have injured or killed more people in Yellowstone than any other natural feature,' the Yellowstone website says. 

Park officials have warned visitors to remain on the trails and boardwalks as the ground in hydrothermal areas is 'fragile and thin'

Hot springs have injured or killed more people in Yellowstone than any other natural feature