Two of the four children who went missing while bathing in the Gorai River in Khoksa upazila of Kushtia were rescued alive on Saturday, while efforts are underway to locate the two others still missing.

The rescued children are Samia, 6, and Sumaiya, 8.

The missing girls were identified as Taifa, 7, daughter of Faruk, and Suraiya, 8, daughter of Sohel.

All the children are relatives and residents of Osmanpur village in Osmanpur union of the upazila.

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Abdur Rashid, the boatman who rescued the two children, said he noticed the girls swimming near Osmanpur ghat of the river around 2:30 pm. After dropping off passengers, he saw three of the children drifting away in the current.

“I quickly took the boat towards them and managed to pull two of the girls out of the water,” he said, adding that he also saw another child struggling in the river before she went under.

One of the rescued girls, Samia, said the four of them had gone the river together for a bath and were trying to swim to a pasture that had emerged in the middle of the river.

“At one point the strong current swept us away. We tried to swim back to the bank, but the others were carried away by the current,” she said.

On receiving the information, a team from Khoksa Fire Service and Civil Defence rushed to the scene and began a search operation, lowering fishing nets into the river with assistance from local residents.

Rawshan Ali, unit leader of Khoksa Fire Service and Civil Defence, said that based on information from the rescued children, two girls remain missing.

“The pyjamas of one of the missing girls have already been recovered,” he said, adding that a diving team from Khulna is on the way and is expected to arrive by 8 pm.

“If adequate lighting can be arranged, a rescue operation will continue in the river tonight,” he added.