It has been reported that at least seven people have been killed in the United Arab Emirates after a barrage of unseasonable downpours had triggered flash flooding in eastern districts of the normally parched Gulf state, authorities said.
“We regret to announce that six people of Asian nationalities have been found dead as a result of the floods,” the interior ministry’s chief of central operations, Ali al-Tunaiji, said.
Read Also: 16 Die As Flash Floods Hit Indian Kashmir Pilgrimage Site
The ministry later announced the death of a seventh Asian migrant.
July temperatures in the UAE regularly hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) but its east coast can also be affected by the Indian Ocean monsoon.
When torrential rain falls on sun-baked earth, it can lead to flash flooding.
The emergency services said they had answered hundreds of calls for help over the past two days as the floodwaters swamped the streets of the port city of Fujairah and other eastern districts.
In another report, No fewer than sixteen people have been confirmed dead in Indian-administered Kashmir, with rescuers searching for dozens more missing, after flash floods swept away hundreds of tents near a popular Hindu pilgrimage site, officials disclosed on Sunday.
Around 10,000 people were camped near the remote Amarnath temple, nestled in a Himalayan mountain cave when a sudden cloudburst triggered a deluge.
Frequent whirring helicopter sorties were evacuating the dead and an unknown number of panicked and injured pilgrims from the Baltal base camp to the north of the shrine.
“We found 16 bodies so far and at least 40 are missing,” an official from the state disaster response agency told AFP.
