Mother and son swept away in Xinjiang flash flood found dead after 8-day search

The bodies of a mother and her 11-year-old son, swept away by a flash flood in Xinjiang on June 28, have been recovered after an eight-day search, a family friend confirmed on Sunday.

The woman's friend, Ms Liu, said rescue teams found the mother's body in a reservoir downstream of the accident site around 5pm, with the son's body discovered about 20 minutes later.

The tragedy occurred when the family from Suzhou, Jiangsu, were driving along the S101 highway in Hutubi county, Changji prefecture. Heavy rain triggered a flash flood, and the vehicle lost control on a water-covered section of road. The car was swept towards a 10-metre-deep drainage ditch.

The mother and son got out of the car while the father remained inside, trying to stabilise the vehicle. When he got out, his wife and son had disappeared.

A crane driver who witnessed the incident said the boy was immediately swept away by the current, and the mother was also pulled under when she tried to save him. The father survived.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓