LAHORE: Five picnickers were feared drowned in Chenab River while making TikTok videos near Rohilanwali in district Muzaffargarh on Saturday evening.

According to police and Rescue 1122, nine young friends had gone for a picnic at the riverbank near Ganga Pattan. They were playing on the bank of the river when one of them slipped into the water. When he started drowning, his other friends jumped into the river to rescue him. Five of them also drowned in the water and four others survived. The victims were identified as Muhammad Ali, Rana Usman, Malik Ahmad, Rana Abdul Rehman and Muhammad Makki.

One of the nine picnickers told the media that they were throwing mud at each other when one of their friends tried to pick mud and slipped into the water. He said they all tried to rescue him but could not do so and four others also drowned.

“I and three others came out of the water and could not help to rescue our friends as we did not know how to swim,” he said.

A rescuer also told Dawn the deceased were regular visitors of the picnic spot to make TikTok videos.

Muzaffargarh Rescue 1122 teams, led by Emergency Officer Ubaidullah Khan, reached the spot and started the operation.

Mr Khan told Dawn there was deep water close to the riverbank and they had called for boats to launch the operation to search for the victims. The bodies of the victims could not be found though rescuers continued the search operation even in the dark. The emergency officer said they searched for the bodies for one kilometre in the river but failed to find one, so far.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2026