Police: ‘We are preparing for a long night of rescue operations’

With darkness falling, police say that search and rescue efforts to find two missing students caught in flash floods in the south of Israel could continue well into the night.

“We are doing all we can to find those still missing. Some have been rescued and some are still out there. We will keep going until we find them all,” police spokesperson Meirav Lapidot tells reporters at the scene.

“We are preparing for a long night of search and rescue operations,” she says.

Eight youths from a premilitary academy were in critical condition and two were missing after they were swept away in torrential floods during a hike in Nahal Tzafit, a riverbed in the southern Dead Sea area.

Some 13 members of the group were found and retrieved by rescuers without harm. Two were lightly hurt.