Civilians fleeing Isil-held Fallujah were trapped on the bank of the Euphrates River on Sunday as families gave tragic accounts of watching relatives drown in its waters.

Around 50,000 civilians are trapped inside the Isil stronghold as Iraqi forces and allied militias prepare to storm the city.

Aid groups said on Sunday that a crowd was swelling along the river bank, waiting to cross to safety.

For Nuriya, a 50-year old mother of five, that journey ended in gut-wrenching tragedy. Separated from her family in the scramble to board a boat, the 50-year old watched helplessly as her daughter-in-law flailed in the water, losing hold of her children one by one.

“People jumped from the other side of the river and saved some of those who were drowning, but not my son’s two girls and his boy,” she said.