KARACHI, July 4: Eight picnickers, four of them children, were swept away by high tides in two separate incidents on Sunday. In the first incident, at the Gadani beach, five members of a family were swept away by strong currents.

Edhi sources said that three children - Rabia, 5, Obaid, 8, and Bilal, 10, - were sitting at a mound when they were swept away by a tide. Their father Mohammed Saeed and uncle Mohammed Jehangir jumped into the sea to rescue them, but they too were swept away.

A senior official of the Edhi Foundation, Rizwan Edhi, told Dawn that so far only one body, that of Rabia, had been found. The family lived in Block-J of North Nazimabad, he added.

Rabia's body was taken to the Edhi morgue where it could be kept overnight, Mr Edhi added. In the second incident, three people, including a twelve-year-old boy, were swept away by high tides at the Sonara beach.

Zafar Khan, in-charge of the Hawksbay rescue centre of the Karachi city government, told Dawn that Mohammad Riaz, 40, his 12-year-old son and Ashiq Hussain, 34, were swept away by strong currents.

Both Riaz and Ashiq were policemen and resided in the Chakiwara police lines. The name of the child could not be ascertained. Zafar Khan said that Riaz and Ashiq, along with their friends and children, had gone to the beach in a police mobile.

Tragedy struck them when strong currents swept the children into the sea. Riaz and Ashiq and their friend Saeed jumped into the sea to save the children but themselves were overcome by rough water.

Saeed, 35, was rescued by some fishermen. He was shifted to the Hawksbay rescue centre where he was given oxygen. A total of seven people had come to the beach in the police mobile.

They were residents of Chakiwara, Mr Khan added. The incident occurred at 3:45pm, but the rescue centre received the information at about 4:45pm. Last Sunday, seven picnickers had drowned off the Korangi Creek.

Our Staff Correspondent from Quetta adds: Fishermen found bodies of four people who drowned off the Gadani beach after three hours of search. The victims were identified as Mohammed Saeed, 40, Mohammed Jahangir, 35, Bilal, 12, and Obaidullah, 9.