Three dead and four missing when flash floods sweep away pickup truck

Three people were killed and four more were missing when flash floods swept away their pickup truck during a monsoon storm in the Philippines.

The family were coming home from a weekend getaway at a mountain resort when their vehicle was caught in a raging current amid heavy rain in Carmen town, Cebu province, on July 8 evening.

Authorities said 10 passengers sitting on the cargo bed of the pickup managed to save themselves by climbing onto a large boulder in the middle of the river.

Three people, including an 11-year-old girl and a pregnant woman, drowned in the flood and were found downstream.

Rescue personnel were still searching for four missing individuals.

Roger Suico, chief of the Carmen Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said: 'They had a relative who got married on Saturday, and the celebration continued at the mountain resort. When they were returning, they went through the creek, but because it overflowed, they were swept away into the river.'

The Philippine Coast Guard, disaster response officers, and volunteers have towed the family's red Isuzu D-Max, which was lodged against a river boulder, back to land.

The pickup was also believed to have been overcrowded.

Philippine weather agency PAGASA said '372,000 barrels of rain' had fallen in six hours on July 8.

The Philippines and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia are in their annual monsoon rainy season which sees soaring temperatures followed by powerful rain storms in the afternoon leading to widespread flash floods.