Torrential floods leave several people dead in southeastern Morocco
Torrential rains caused floods that killed at least 11 people and left nine still missing in Morocco's southern provinces of Tata, Tiznit, and Errachidia, authorities said Sunday. The floods destroyed 40 homes, damaged 93 roads, and disrupted electricity, water supply, and phone networks in several villages.
Moroccan authorities on Sunday told AFP that 11 people died and nine were missing in flooding caused by an "exceptional" climate phenomenon in southern areas.
Interior ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi said authorities recorded an initial "toll of 11 deaths" after "heavy thunderstorms" that hit "17 prefectures and provinces in the kingdom".
Among the victims, seven died in the province of Tata, some 740 kilometres south of Rabat, and two in Errachidia, almost 500 kilometres east of Marrakesh, according to Khalfi.
He said one of the victims had foreign citizenship, without providing further details.
Khalfi also said "the volume of precipitation recorded in two days is equivalent to that which these regions normally experience during an entire year".
The floods also caused the collapse of 40 homes and damaged 93 roads, and "affected electricity, drinking water and telephone networks", he added.
Usually arid areas in southern Morocco and Algeria have been drenched in floods caused by massive rainfall since Friday, officials told AFP Sunday.
Areas in southern Morocco have been affected "by an extremely unstable tropical air mass", the spokesman for the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology, Lhoussaine Youabd, told AFP.
"We haven't seen such rain for about 10 years," Omar Gana, an Ouarzazate local, told AFP.
(AFP)
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