Four friends swept by flood in Kohistan after waiting for help for three hours

• Locals rescue one of the victims with help of ropes. 
• Victims waited for help, however, no rescue team arrived to save them.
• Locals say they could only recover one of the four bodies. 

MANSEHRA: Four friends lost their lives on Friday while one survived after being stuck in floods for three continuous hours in the Sanagai area of ​​Lower Kohistan District. 

According to the residents of the area, the five victims climbed on a rock to save themselves after being surrounded by heavy flooding. 

The victims waited for help, however, no rescue team arrived to save them and they were eventually swept away by the high-pressure flood water. 

The locals of the area said that a helicopter could have arrived from Peshawar or Gilgit in an hour if the administration wanted. They tried saving them by pulling them with the help of a rope, however, they could only save one out of five. 

They said that they could only rescue one victim while the rest four were swept away in floods, adding that they only recovered one of the bodies out of four. 

The video of the incident has been going viral on social media and netizens have expressed their anger over the administration's failure to not rescue the victims. 

KP govt declares emergency in Swat

Earlier today, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government declared an emergency in Swat after the scale of devastation caused by extreme flooding in the district reached out of control following record rains.

Provincial authorities are facing difficulty in rescuing affected families from hill stations of Swat, Dir, and Chitral.

The state of emergency will be in effect until August 30 for relief efforts in flood-affected areas of Swat.

Statement by Deputy Commissioner Kohistan

With regards to social media posts stating district administration did not send a rescue team to save the four-stranded people in Dubair for five hours, District Administration Kohistan has issued an official statement deeming the allegations to be "patently false."

The statement clarified that the rescue in the given conditions was "extremely difficult."

— Thumbnail image: Twitter