They were ‘swallowed up by the flood waters’ despite desperate attempts to rescue them.
The tragic moment of three friends in a final embrace shortly before being swept away during a flash flood in Italy has been captured on tape.
The footage that broke millions of hearts, posted on X, shows Patrizia Cormos, 20, her friend Bianca Doros, 23, and her boyfriend Cristian Molnar, 25, standing thigh deep in a churning river.
The group found themselves stranded on a tiny pebble island while taking a walk along the Natisone River, Udine in the Friuli region when the water levels surged to dangerous levels. They alerted passersby and firefighters were able to arrive at the scene as soon as possible trying to save the group by tossing them a rope, but the three friends couldn’t grasp it, according to reports.
Unfortunately, they were ‘swallowed up by the flood waters’ and firefighters watched them ‘disappear.’
“We threw them a rope, but they were literally swallowed up by the flood waters in front of our eyes. We watched them disappear,” recounted Giorgio Basile, the chief of the provincial firefighters in Udine.
On Sunday, June 2, the community made a grim discovery when two bodies believed to be Patrizia Cormos and Bianca Doros were found approximately 1 kilometer from their last known location. The third person, Cristian Molnar has not be found yet.
The search intensified with drones, boats, and divers scouring the river.
Doros, originally from Romania, had traveled to Italy to visit her parents.
Cormos, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Udine, joined her friends for a drive to celebrate completing a significant exam, as reported by her devastated mother.
Reportedly, the trio parked their car near the river to explore a small beach and capture some photographs.
The mayor of the nearby town of Premariacco, Michele De Sabata, said the tragedy occurred in “only minutes.”
“They found themselves in an unpredictable situation. Those who live in Premariacco know the river and how conditions can change quickly.
“The three kids arrived when it was sunny. They could not have known what was about to happen. It only took minutes,” he said.
Recent severe storms have triggered a string of destructive flash floods across northern Italy, with the cities of Padua and Vicenza being particularly hard-hit, with Veneto’s governor comparing the extreme weather conditions to a “water bomb.”
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