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29 March 2024

Saudi floods death toll rises to 20

Published
By AFP

Twenty people have died and four people remain missing in Saudi Arabia after heavy downpours triggered flash floods in the desert kingdom for nearly a week, the civil defence authorities said on Thursday.

People have drowned in several areas of Saudi Arabia, according to a statement by the civil defence quoted by SPA state news agency.

Rescue teams evacuated six villages in the southwestern Bisha province after a sand dam at the valley of Tabala partially collapsed, it said.

Authorities have been urging people to avoid wadi valleys and plains flooded by heavy rainfall which has continued since last Friday.

The vast Arabian Peninsula country has not experienced such a high volume of rainfall for 25 years.

But around 10 people were killed in 2011 when flooding swept through the western city of Jeddah, where 123 people also perished in floods in 2009.

The inability of Jeddah's infrastructure to drain off flood waters and uncontrolled construction in and around the city were blamed at the time for the high number of victims.

Three kids drown in little pond in Saudi

Three Saudi children drowned as they tried to swim in a small pond formed by heavy rain that has swept the Gulf Kingdom over the past few days.

Relatives had already plucked out their bodies when police and the civil defence arrived in the area in the southern province of Jazan.

“The three boys were swimming in the pond when they drowned…relatives who rushed to the area plucked them out but they were already dead,” Sabq newspaper said without specifying the victims’ ages.