Two sisters drowned after slipping on rocks while paddling at a popular wild swimming site in Snowdonia National Park, an inquest has heard. Hajra Zahid, 29, and her sister Haleema, 25, were pulled from pools on the Watkin Path, which leads to the summit of Snowdon, on 11 June 2025.
The sisters, who could not swim, were visiting the site in the Nant Gwynant area of Gwynedd with three male friends, all students at the University of Chester. The group split up for privacy and religious reasons, with the sisters heading to a pool upstream on the Afon Cwm Llan river.
When the men called out and received no reply, they went to the pools and found the sisters' shoes and belongings by the water's edge. They discovered Hajra floating face down in her red dress and pulled her onto the riverbank, but could not find Haleema. Emergency services were called, and members of Llanberis mountain rescue team retrieved Haleema from deep water near the waterfall. Both women were pronounced dead at the scene.
Assistant coroner for north-west Wales, Sarah Riley, concluded the deaths were accidental, stating that the sisters had intended only to paddle and had not entered deep water voluntarily. She noted that one or both may have slipped from an “exceptionally slippy” slab of rock at the edge of the pools, which had also caused mountain rescue team members to slip.
The sisters, originally from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, had come to the UK in January 2025 to study for master’s degrees in international business. Hajra's husband, Hessham Minhas, described her as a “determined, ambitious woman” who believed in education and personal growth. Riley extended condolences to the family and urged caution about the dangers of entering such pools.
