Three youngsters stuck under an overflowing waterfall were rescued in Thailand.

The trio were swimming in the fast-flowing water when they heard a loud gushing noise coming from uphill before a flash flood swept them away in Kalasin province, Thailand on September 14.

One of the teens, Jakkapat Kotawin, 15, was able to pull his two younger friends – an 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl – to a rock where they were trapped while shouting for help.

After about two hours, a villager who was foraging for mushrooms in the area heard the children and saw them shivering in the middle of the deluge so he called the local rescue team for help.

Jakkapat’s grandmother Nuan Saidee, 57, said: ‘I told the kids to not go play at the waterfalls but they didn’t listen. They sneaked out and went there.

‘Fortunately, somebody heard them and the rescue happened in time. I will have to watch over my grandchildren more closely and not allow them to go play in the waterfalls again.’

Rescue team members drove to Phu Phan national park where the waterfalls was, about was 3.5km away from the village, before trekking to reach the spot.

They found two boys and one girl hiding away from the flowing forest stream in the waterfall’s 13-meter deep rock shaped like a trench.

The rescue volunteers then heard the group cry for help but they asked the children to remain calm and threw three life vests tied to a rope.

A team member then climbed down and carefully pulled the frightened children up to the ground safely. They were given a health check but no one was seriously hurt aside from bumps and scratches.

The youngsters were taken home to their families after receiving first aid treatment from the rescue team.

Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are in the middle of their tropical monsoon rainy season, which lasts until October or November. Soaring temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius are often followed by powerful tropical storms with thunder, lightning, rain and flash floods which cause rivers to flow faster and become dangerous.