Peshawar - Arab Today
An 11-year-old girl drowned on Tuesday after falling into a river in northern Pakistan while attempting to take a selfie and her parents also died trying to save her, officials said.
The drownings occurred in the Kunhar river that flows through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, some 200 km north of Islamabad.
The deep, rocky and fastflowing river is popular for white-water rafting. “The girl, Safia Atif, was trying to take a selfie along the river when she slipped and fell,” local police official Arshad Khan told AFP, explaining the incident was witnessed by other tourists. Safia’s mother Shazia Atif then jumped in to save her daughter but was swept away.
“Seeing both his wife and daughter drowning, the father Atif Hussain also jumped in to rescue them but he met a similar fate,” Khan added.
“The dead bodies of the mother and daughter have been recovered while we are still looking for the body of Hussain,” he added. The holidaying parents were doctors from Punjab province.
They are survived by a nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son who witnessed the event.
Source: Arab News