Four Killed In Torrential Tunisia Rains
Fakhir Rizvi Published September 23, 2018 | 07:42 PM
Nabeul, Tunisia, Sept 23 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2018 ) :Flash floods in Tunisia's Cap Bon peninsula have killed at least four people, authorities said Sunday, as surging waters caused by heavy rains carried away homes, cars and chunks of road.
Among the four dead were two sisters, swept away as they left work at a factory in Bou Argoub, 45 kilometres southeast of the capital, the interior ministry said.
A 60-year-old man drowned near the town of Takilsa and another man was found dead in Bir Bouregba, close to the town of Hammamet, ministry spokesman Sofiene Zaag told AFP.
Saturday's storm caused water levels in some areas to rise as much as 1.7 metres (5.6 feet), as bridges and roads were damaged in record rains that dropped the equivalent of nearly six months of average precipitation.
"It was raining since noon and (in the afternoon) it became torrential. The water flooded over the bridge and onto the road," Moncef Barouni, a resident in the coastal town of Nabeul, told AFP.
In just minutes, "the water swept away the fence, then the boiler room, the summer kitchen and a part of the house," he said.
"I was scared for my life." The storm dumped 200 millimetres (7.
9 inches) of rain on Nabeul and up to 225 millimetres in the city of Beni Khalled, in the peninsula's centre, according to Tunisia's National Institute of Meteorology.
It was the heaviest rainfall since the institute began keeping a record in 1995, the institute said, adding that it had issued a warning about the storms on Friday.
Videos posted to social networks showed surging waters carrying cars and pieces of road in the north of the peninsula.
Tunisian authorities said they had dispatched police, army and rescue teams to the region on Saturday afternoon, in addition to mobilising ambulances and two helicopters.
Authorities also took preventative measures in the Sahel region further south in anticipation of further rains, but by Sunday they appeared to have subsided.
The sun was out Sunday and receding water levels meant most of the area's roads were passable by car, Zaag said, although the region's telephone networks were still largely out of service.
Severe thunderstorms have hit the North African country since the middle of last week, flooding roads and damaging property, sparking anger against the authorities for allegedly failing to maintain drainage systems.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
Currency Rate In Pakistan - Dollar, Euro, Pound, Riyal Rates On 25 April 2024
Today Gold Rate in Pakistan 25 April 2024
Mired in crisis, Boeing reports another loss
Session Awarding Ceremony 2024 held at Cadet College Muzaffarabad
Austrian ski great Hirscher to make comeback under Dutch flag
Pakistan, Japan agrees to convene 'Economic Policy Dialogue'
FM Dar conveys deepest sympathy on torrential rains devastation in UAE
Spain PM Sanchez says weighing resignation after wife's graft probe
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 1st update
Long-lost Klimt portrait auctioned off for 30 mn euros
Osaka seals first win on clay since 2022 in Madrid
Earthquake jolts Karachi
More Stories From World
-
Blinken calls for US, China to manage differences 'responsibly'
10 minutes ago -
Norway oil giant Equinor's profit falls on lower gas prices
10 minutes ago -
N. Macedonia's right-wing presidential candidate wins 1st round
30 minutes ago -
Vietnam court jails soft drinks tycoon in $40 million scam case
30 minutes ago -
The guardian angels of the source of the Seine
50 minutes ago -
Star Dudamel brings inclusive vision to New York Philharmonic
2 hours ago
-
Paris dream of swimming in the Seine finally within reach
2 hours ago -
Portugal's Carnation Revolution, 50 years on
2 hours ago -
Tough times for Argentine factories as consumers penny-pinch
2 hours ago -
Use of alcohol and e-cigarettes among youth 'alarming': WHO
2 hours ago -
Football: Italian Cup result
3 hours ago -
Bird flu in humans? Experts see little risk
3 hours ago