A 3-year-old girl in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh went missing last weekend after she was swept away into a river, according to authorities.
The girl, identified only as Shirin, was with her two cousins and her uncle when the scooter they were riding fell near the Dwarkadhish Temple in Mathura at around 11 p.m. Saturday due to a downpour, the Times of India reported, citing police.
They had just celebrated her birthday at a restaurant, according to the newspaper.
Shirin’s cousins, aged 11 and 13, were able to get up, but the current of the rainwater at the time reportedly washed Shirin away into the Yamuna River.
“Despite efforts of several hours by the fire brigade team during midnight on Saturday and afterward in the morning on Sunday, her body could not be traced,” Mathura fire station officer NK Singh was quoted as saying by the outlet.
A search operation by divers and a team of fire brigade personnel was launched, Singh said.
Shirin’s disappearance happened just days after police announced that three people had drowned in the Yamuna, NDTV reported.
The incident occurred as worshippers of Durga immersed idols of the Hindu goddess in the river as part of a religious event.
Five more boys drowned in the Yamuna River in late August during a similar event, according to India Today.
The river’s water levels recently crossed the danger mark following unseasonal rains in northwest India.
Authorities evacuated more than 10,000 people from floodplains to state-run schools, night shelters and tents set up on higher grounds following the increased water levels, the Hindustan Times reported.
However, frequent flooding continues to impact those living along the Yamuna.
“The extreme rains in India’s Himalayan states are just the latest in a series of events in South Asia that are exacerbated by climate change,” Harjeet Singh, the head of global political strategy at the Climate Action Network International, explained.
“We are facing melting glaciers in Nepal and Pakistan, rising seas in India and Bangladesh, and cyclones and inhospitable temperatures across the region,” he said, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Climate change could force 216 million people to migrate within their own countries by 2050, the World Bank said.
Around 40.5 million people in South Asia, where India is located, are expected to be displaced.
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