More than a dozen children and teachers were killed in Jordan when a flash flood swept away their bus during a school outing near the Dead Sea on Thursday, the country's emergency services said.
At least 18 people - including several students under age 14 - died in the incident, which took place near the Zara Maeen hot springs amid a heavy rainfall warning, local media reported.
"Heavy rains caused a flash flood close to the Dead Sea that washed away a school bus carrying 37 students and seven minders," an official with Jordan's fire service told AFP.
Thirty-four people were rescued, some of whom were in serious condition after Jordan launched a search operation involving helicopters and army troops, Brigadier General Farid al-Sharaa told state television.
The flooding carried people for "four to five kilometres, "Sharaa said, while some survived by clinging to rocks.
Hundreds of families and relatives converged on Shounah hospital, a few kilometres from the resort area, after the incident. Relatives sobbed and searched for missing children, a witness told Reuters.
An official with Jordan's civil defence department told the Jordan Times newspaper the death toll was expected to increase.
“The number of those killed in the flash flood is expected to increase because many were reported to have been swept away by the raging water,” the official said.
Jordan's King Abdullah cancelled a trip to Bahrain to follow the rescue operations, state media said.
Heavy rains also caused roads to flood in the Jordanian capital, Amman, while big hailstones fell in Ajloun, in the north of the country.
Several other countries in the region have also experienced severe weather this month.
Lebanon saw strong winds and hail on Thursday, which caused damage to parked cars, shop windows and electric lines.
The Beirut municipality cautioned residents to take necessary precautions, saying heavy rains and flooding could block streets and damage properties in the capital, the Daily Star newspaper reported.
Earlier this week, roads were closed amid heavy flooding in Doha, the capital of Qatar, after almost a year's worth of rain fell on parts of the country in a single day.
Air traffic was disrupted, homes were flooded and universities and shops were closed as a result of the downpour.
Last week, flash flooding also killed five people across Tunisia, including a six-year-old child who drowned in Sidi Bouzid. The deaths came less than a month after torrential rains killed five in the country’s northeastern region of Cap Bon.
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