Emergency services are still searching for a boy that went missing in the Drava River

Search and rescue teams are still looking for a nine year-old boy that went missing in the Drava River on Monday night. His mother and younger brother were saved by passersby. The water level on the river has been relatively high due to recent rains.

The missing boy reportedly slipped into the river on Monday evening while walking along the shoreline. His mother and younger brother jumped in to try and save him, but were overwhelmed by the river. Passersby Emanuel Horvatiček, Ivan Jozić and Toni Šabian witnessed the unfolding disaster and managed to pull the mother and her younger son's lifeless bodies from the water and resuscitate them, but were unable to find the other boy.

"I managed to see her, the tip of her head was visible above the water. I jumped in the water, swam to her and pulled her onto the pontoon. My friend Toni Šabian started resuscitation. I didn't see the boy, because he passed by the pontoon. The water carried him away. It was only when the waves caused by my jumping in the water again that his head appeared. I swam to him and pulled him from the water, my colleague was waiting on shore and managed to grab us and immediately began resuscitating the boy," said Horvatiček.

"After I grabbed the child and pulled the body from the water, we were following the instructions we were getting over the phone. We all know roughly what resuscitation entails ... but the body was limp. There were no signs of life. I can only thank God that we were able to revive the child," Jozić told reporters.

However, the harrowing experience left both men distraught.

"Honestly, it's hard to live with the fact that we couldn't help the other child," said a visibly shaken Horvatiček.

Source: HRT