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ITALY, June 2: In a heart-wrenching incident, three young friends were filmed in a final embrace before being swept away by flash floods in northern Italy. Patrizia Cormos, 20, her boyfriend Cristian Molnar, 25, and their friend Bianca Doros, 23, were taking a stroll along the Natisone River near Udine in the Friuli region when the river surged to dangerous levels following days of torrential rain.
The two women and one man, all in their 20s, were last seen alive on Friday, standing thigh-deep in the swirling river water on a tiny island they had walked to in the middle of the river. Video footage from the scene during rescue efforts showed the trio hugging each other, trapped in the rising torrent and unable to reach the riverbank.
Giorgio Basile, the chief of the provincial firefighters in Udine, recounted the desperate rescue attempt: “We threw them a rope, but they were literally swallowed up by the floodwaters in front of our eyes. We watched them disappear.”
On Sunday, two bodies, believed to be those of Ms. Cormos and Ms. Doros, were found around 1,000 meters from where they were last seen. Ms. Doros, a Romanian national, was reportedly visiting her family. The search continues for Mr. Molnar, also Romanian, as prosecutors have opened an investigation into the tragedy.
One of the women made an emergency call to the police at around 1:35 PM on Friday, prompting a swift response from firefighters. A firefighter urged the trio to stick together from a nearby bridge as emergency workers tried to throw them a rope, but the powerful current carried them away.
Since Friday, firefighters and other emergency workers have been using drones, boats, and divers to search the river for any signs of the missing individuals. A handbag belonging to one of the women was recovered, reportedly containing the cellphone used to make the emergency SOS call.
Mr. Basile emphasized the challenge of the rescue efforts: “The main element is not so much the rain, it is the power of the river, the very strong currents. There are gorges, there is a backwash of water and even for the experts it is a particularly treacherous task.”
Heavy floods have caused widespread chaos across northern Italy, affecting areas including Milan, Varese, and Cremona over the past two weeks. Violent storms struck the Friuli and Veneto regions in mid-May, with further rain forecast in northern Italy this week.