Three friends filmed hugging each other before being swept away by a flash flood “were just two meters from safety but didn’t want to walk through chest-high water.”

The three young friends who were seen hugging each other before being swept to their deaths during a flash flood in Italy were only “a couple of meters from safety”, rescuers revealed.

Heartbreaking images posted on

They were last seen alive on Friday while walking along the Natisone River, in Udine, in the Friuli region.

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

Rescuers told Italian broadcaster Telefriuli that the three young men, believed dead, were just meters from the safety of the river bank.

One of them said: ‘Only a stretch of a couple of meters of water separated them from the shore, the bottom up to torso height at most. They did not want to ford and retreated to the center of the river bed.

The rescuer added that “they had the opportunity to escape and save themselves,” but they were “panicking.”

The mayor of nearby Premariacco revealed that there was a firefighter just seven meters away from the group, who could do nothing to rescue them.

The head of the Udinehe provincial firefighters, Giorgio Basile, said The Telegraph He threw a rope at them in a desperate attempt to rescue the group.

But, tragically, they were “swallowed by the flood waters” as he watched and saw them “disappear.”

Today, two bodies, believed to be Ms Cormos and Ms Doros, were discovered 1km from the site. The search for Mr Molnar continues and firefighters promise: “We won’t stop until we find the third missing person.”

One of the women made an emergency call to the police at 1.35pm on Friday and firefighters arrived quickly.

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

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

But later he is heard saying with fear: “Oh, no, oh my God.”

Tragically, they were unable to hold on and were swept away as horrified emergency services looked on.

The friends drove to Premariacco beach, near Udine, and walked to the river.

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

Mrs. Cormos, who was studying at the Udine Academy of Fine Arts, asked her mother if she could go on a trip after finishing 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 responded by saying they were “just going to hang out and take some photos.”

“Come on mom, don’t be mad,” he had told her.

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

A handbag was recovered from one of the women containing the cell phone that made her emergency call.

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

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

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

In recent weeks, storms and heavy rain have left many areas of northern Italy under water.

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

The governor of the Veneto region described the weather as a “water bomb.”

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