Mother, 2 kids drown in flooded South Upi river

MAGUINDANAO --- Three villagers were drowned in rampaging floodwaters when they fell from a footbridge connecting the banks of a wide river in South Upi town on Saturday.The Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao identified the fatalities as Linda Modunggel and her children, Melanie, 11, and 12 month-old Ritchel.Responding investigators from the South Upi municipal police said the bamboo footbridge collapsed while they were trying to cross the Bantek River in Barangay Bantek, an upland area northwest of the municipality.The victims were swept downstream by floodwaters and were later found dead one after another along lower channels of the Bantek River several kilometers away by rescuers.Water level at Bantek River then was dangerously high, swelled by heavy rains the day before.