Manila: Six college students who went on an outreach mission in Tarlac were killed after strong currents washed them away as they were fording a creek on Sunday.

The six, all from the University of the Philippines in Diliman and Manila, as well as from a local trekking group, were part of a group of 54 students who went on a mission that involved trekking to bring educational materials to pupils of an indigenous upland community near a monastery in San Jose.

San Jose is located some 117 kilometres north of Manila.

Charmaine Mallari, planning officer Office of Civil Defence, Central Luzon, was quoted in a report by radio station dzMM earlier that five of the students’ bodies were recovered while one still remains unaccounted for.

The remains of a sixth victim were found on Tuesday.

Nine of the 54 mountaineers sustained injuries as a result of their ordeal.

“A total of 54 mountaineers went to Barangay [village] Iba in San Jose, Tarlac for their outreach mission,” Mallari said while noting that on the way back, the creek swelled making their trek difficult.

A day after the incident, the UP Mountaineers society clarified that those involved in the mishap were not members of their group.

“The organisation would like to clarify that the people who passed away were not members nor applicants of the University of the Philippines Mountaineers. The event was also not organised by the UP Mountaineers but by an outfitter based in Tarlac,” the organisation said.

Nevertheless, the group said their organisation is taking part in a search and rescue operation for the mishap stricken trekkers.

“The only involvement of the UP Mountaineers in this incident is the assistance of our Search and Rescue Team, led by one of our founders, Boboy Francisco, which was one of the first groups on-site to support the search operations yesterday evening,” the group said.

The trekking disaster came a year after seven students of Bulacan State University in Central Luzon were killed in a similar incident.

The students died after strong currents washed them away as they were trying to cross Madlum River at the Biak-na-Bato (Split Boulder in Filipino) National Park in San Miguel, Bulacan, which at that time swelled suddenly as a result of a heavy downpour.

Due to its historical significance and natural beauty, Biak-na-Bato National Park is popular among students, especially in the Central Luzon area.

Biak-na-Bato is a mountain stronghold used by Filipino revolutionaries fighting the Spanish colonial during the late 1800s.

The pupils, who were all in their 20s, were on the second day of their two-day field trip in mid-August 2014 to fulfil academic requirements needed to graduate from their tourism course when the tragedy struck.