‘Heartbreaking’: Three friends seen hugging before being swept away by floodwaters

The search for a young man who was swept away by a flash flood in Italy continuedon Monday (Jun 3), a day after the bodies of his two female friends were found. Amid the search, a heartbreaking video of the incident emerged which shows the trio hugging moments before they were swept away by the floodwaters in a river in northern Italy.

Search for young man continues

Rescuers have deployed divers, drones, and helicopters to search for the young man who was among the three friends who got trapped on a gravel island in the middle of the Natisone River in the northeastern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

In the footage, the trio identified as Patrizia Cormos (20), her friend Bianca Doros (23), and her boyfriend Cristian Molnar (25) were seen holding on to each other just seconds before they were swept away by the flash flood.

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The three friends were standing on a tiny pebble island when the river level suddenly began to rise reportedly after days of heavy rains in the region.

The bodies of Cormos and her friend Doros were found on Sunday (Jun 2) between 700 metres and one kilometre downstream of where they disappeared.

The rescue team that found the bodies described the scene as “heartbreaking”. They also found a handbag containing the mobile phone which made the emergency call. Rescuers on Monday continued the search for Molnar.

What we know about the incident

The three friends had reportedly decided to take a walk along the river last Friday (May 31) and ventured out onto a tiny gravel island when the level of the river suddenly began to rise and the trio got stuck.

The chief of the firefighters threw them a rope to pull themselves out of the river, but unfortunately, they were unable to do so.

“We threw them a rope, but they were literally swallowed up by the flood waters in front of our eyes. We watched them disappear,” said Giorgio Basile, fire service chief in the nearby city of Udine.

“Stay together, gather together, hug each other,” one firefighter had shouted at the group from a nearby bridge.

The 20-year-old was a student and the 23-year-old was from Romania who had recently arrived in Italy to visit her parents. The 25-year-old was Doros’ boyfriend, also from Romania.

The mayor of Premariacco suggested that the trio could have saved themselves had they waded back to the riverbank immediately.

“The water had surrounded them, but it was still low. Maybe they decided not to move so as not to get their clothes and shoes wet. Unfortunately, the river was then flowing at tremendous speed,” said Mayor Michele De Sabata.

The mayor, speaking to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, also revealed that a fire service rescuer was just “seven metres away from them, but he was unable to do anything.”

He also acknowledged that it was sunny and the trio could not have predicted what was about to happen. De Sabata said that a rescue helicopter was also dispatched but arrived “a minute after the kids disappeared.”

(With inputs from agencies)