Rescue 1122 on Sunday recovered the bodies of five youngsters who drowned in the Chenab near Ganga Pattan in Rohailanwali, Muzaffargarh, Dawn reported from Lahore.
Police and Rescue 1122 said nine friends had gone to the river for a picnic. One slipped in. Four others jumped in to rescue him. All five drowned. The other four reached the bank.
Dawn named the dead as Muhammad Ali, Rana Usman, Malik Ahmad, Abdul Rehman and Muhammad Makki. A rescuer said they had been making TikTok videos at the riverbank. One surviving friend told reporters they were throwing mud at one another when one slipped while trying to pick something up, and that none of the five knew how to swim.
The search
Teams from Muzaffargarh, led by District Emergency Officer Ubaidullah Khan, searched for about 18 hours. Khan told Dawn that 42 rescuers, including 13 swimmers and 12 divers, used four boats. He said the river was about 35 to 40 feet deep at the spot, with a flow of 5,000 to 6,000 cusecs. The bodies were handed to the families after legal formalities.
