Muscat: An Indian expatriate worker's body was pulled from a flooded wadi on Thursday morning by Civil Defence personnel as Royal Oman Police officially confirmed 25 people had died in the cyclone.
On Wednesday, when Cyclone Gonu was causing devastation to the east and north of Oman, around 40 workers were stranded on the rooftop of a building in the Wadi Adei area with water surging all around them. The roof collapsed as darkness descended.
“We are not sure how many went into the water and how many hung on but 10 are unaccounted for,'' Vikraman Panicker, who was also stuck on the roof, told Gulf News on Thursday.
He and his co-workers were sitting by the roadside as Civil Defence personnel pulled the body of a friend from the water.
As the workers struggled on the rooftop in pounding rain, Manish Pratapan took the lead and got in touch with friends and social workers in Muscat.
“We were on the rooftop for more than 12 hours until it crashed,'' said Manish, who with other colleagues climbed a nearby mountain and crossed it to safety on Thursday.
“We have lost everything,'' rued Manish as he and his workers were taken to a shelter at the Indian School in Muscat.
“We have made arrangements with beds and food at the Indian School to accommodate displaced Indian workers,'' said J.K. Tripathi, Charge d'Affaires at the Indian embassy.
Colonel Abdullah Bin Ali Al Harthi, Head of the Public Relations Department at the ROP, told the government-owned Oman Television that 12 people were confirmed dead, including some members of the rescue teams. He did not elaborate on their nationalities.
However, diplomatic officials confirmed that one Pakistani and another Indian were identified while two more bodies in the ROP mortuary were not identified. The rest, officials, said are believed to be Omanis.
Phone lines are still not working in the eastern region.
