The mother of a young woman who was swept to her death with two friends by flash flooding in Italy has criticised passersby for taking videos and photos instead of trying to save the group.

Patrizia Cormos, 20, Bianca Doros, 23, and Cristian Molnar, 25, had gone for a stroll along the banks of the Natisone river in the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia last Friday.

They crossed to a small gravel island but suddenly found themselves threatened by floodwaters caused by torrential rain upstream.

Video of the trio clutching each other as the river rose above their waists went viral in Italy. Moments later, they were swept away.

The bodies of the two young women were found on Sunday – two days after they were swallowed up by the raging floodwaters – while Mr Molnar is missing, presumed drowned.

“What really causes me pain is the fact that everyone took photos and videos and nobody saved them. Nobody. They should not have been taking videos,” said Mihaela Ioan, the mother of Patrizia.

She said she had not been able to look at the video of the three friends desperately clutching each other.

“I have just seen a photo of them hugging each other and another showing them standing on the gravel when it was still dry,” she told Corriere della Sera.

“None of them knew the river. They found it after doing searches online. My daughter could have saved herself but she stayed with her friend Bianca who didn’t know how to swim.”

Police and prosecutors have opened an investigation into the deaths and will scrutinise the response of emergency services.

Ms Cormos made four calls to the emergency number on her mobile phone.

Helicopters were dispatched but they arrived too late to winch the friends to safety.

“Patrizia made four phone calls to the emergency number. The first was at 13.29, the others in the minutes that followed,” said prosecutor Massimo Lia.

“From our preliminary assessments, everything unfolded in about half an hour. From a situation of apparent tranquillity, the river developed into a tumultuous flood which then swept them away.”

The bodies of the two women, both of them Romanian, were found between 700 metres and a kilometre downstream from where they were swept away.

Their bodies will be flown back to their home country for the funerals.