Harrowing moment three friends are filmed hugging each other before being swept away in flash floods in Italy

This is the tragic moment three friends hugged each other for seconds before being swept away in a flash flood in Italy.

The heartbreaking images on

They were last seen alive on Friday when they took a walk along the Natisone River, Udine in the Friuli region.

But the water rose to dangerous levels after days of heavy rain and the group became stranded on a small pebble island in the middle of the river, holding each other to try to avoid being swept away.

Picture dare Patrizia Cormos, 20, Cristian Molnar, 25, and his girlfriend Bianca Doros, 23

This was said by the head of the provincial fire brigade in Udinehe, Giorgio Basile The Telegraph he threw them a rope in a desperate attempt to save the group.

But tragically, they were ‘swallowed up by the flood waters’ as he watched and he saw them ‘disappear’.

Today, two bodies, believed to be Ms Cormos and Ms Doros, were discovered 1 km from the site. The search for Mr Molnar continues, with the fire brigade promising: ‘We will not stop until we find the third missing person.’

One of the women called the police at 1.35pm on Friday and the fire brigade quickly arrived.

A firefighter told them to stick together from a nearby bridge and they grabbed each other for stability.

A firefighter told the terrified friends: “Stay together, come together, hug each other.”

But he is later heard saying in anguish: ‘Oh no – oh my God.’

They were last seen alive on Friday when they took a walk along the Natisone River, Udine

Tragically, they were unable to hold on and were dragged away as shocked emergency services looked on.

The friends had driven to Premariacco Beach near Udine and walked to the river.

Ms Doros was from Romania and was visiting family in Italy when the tragedy unfolded with her boyfriend, who is also Romanian.

Ms Cormos, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Udine, had asked her mother if she could go on a trip after passing an exam.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted her as saying she had asked her daughter “not to go because she was tired.”

But she had replied that they were “just going to hang out and take some pictures.”

“Come on Mom, don’t be angry,” she had said.

Rescuers have been using drones, boats and divers to search the river since Friday.

A city police officer helps a woman cross a road after part of the city was flooded following persistent rain in Milan, Italy last month

Firefighters use a rubber boat to evacuate people after part of Milan was flooded on May 15

A handbag was recovered from one of the women containing the mobile phone with which they had made the SOS emergency call.

Michele De Sabata, a local mayor, expressed his condolences for the three young friends trapped in an “unpredictable situation.”

He said locals know all too well how the river can “change quickly” and that the “three children arrived when it was sunny, they couldn’t have known what was going to happen.”

“It only took a few minutes,” he said.

In recent weeks, storms and heavy rainfall have flooded large parts of northern Italy.

Emergency services used rubber boats to rescue people from their homes and many cars were left submerged on the roads.

The governor of the Veneto region described the weather as a ‘water bomb’.

In the popular tourist destination of Milan, the city was flooded after two rivers burst their banks, severely disrupting travel services.