Italy: heartbreaking images of three young people trapped by sudden river flooding

In the north-east of Italy, torrential rains caused heavy flooding.

Three students were trapped by the rising waters, as shown in images broadcast on TF1’s 1 p.m.

Two bodies were found, but a third person is still being sought.

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WEEKENDS 1 p.m.

The sequence, filmed by a local resident, is heartbreaking. In the Udine region, in northeastern Italy, three young people, two girls and a boy, aged 20 to 25 according to La Stampa, were trapped on Friday May 31 by the sudden rise in water in the Natisone river, in the village of Premariacco, while they were on a rock in the middle of the watercourse, which was, according to the Italian press , much calmer when they arrived. This Sunday morning, two bodies were found, while the third person was still missing.

In the amateur footage collected in the video above, the three friends can be seen standing, clinging to each other, in a desperate attempt to resist the current. Their only hope was to be rescued by the fire brigade’s crane and ropes. The three young people, however, were carried away by the current: we can see their silhouettes in the middle of the tumultuous waves, before one of them disappears under the water.

TF1 screenshot

A sudden and violent flood

The village of Premariacco was placed on yellow flood alert after torrential rains. Access to the river beach is prohibited due to its unpredictable floods. The proof with the photo of the three friends taken a few minutes before their disappearance, in which we see them walking along the edge of the watercourse at a still low level. As stated La Stampa, the river flooded very quickly. While the water flow was still only 20 m³ per second at 11:30 a.m., it was 135 m³ just over an hour later, stranding the group of friends on the rock in the middle of the current where they had taken a stand.

On his Facebook account, Michele De Sabata, the mayor of the village of Premariacco, assured that the three young people are “entered the beach then dry” and under the sun, before being surrounded by violent waters. “If they had known about the river and the place, they would have run away. Unfortunately, that was not the case”, he added, specifying that the young people did not have time to escape before the water surrounded them very quickly. As the Italian daily underlines Il Messaggero, which cites a local resident, the water level rose exceptionally high in a few minutes, preventing firefighters from intervening directly with the young victims.