Rabat: Morocco’s government says heavy flooding in the south of the country has killed at least 31 people with a further 18 missing after heavy rains over the weekend.
In the southern city of Guelmim alone, 13 people were killed by a flash flood that roared through a dry river bed, reported the Interior Ministry in a statement carried by the national news agency late Sunday.
There has also been flooding around the resort city of Marrakech, highly popular with European tourists, with roads being cut and tour buses briefly stranded, according to local media.
Heavy storms have swept across several regions including tourist hub Marrakesh, where torrential rain destroyed many mud homes.
Roads and highways were blocked off, making it hard for emergency crew to reach people.
The "exceptional" storms also swept across the regions of Guelmim, Agadir and Ouarzazate, and a search was under way for the missing, the authorities said.
Journalist Brahim Boulid, reporting from Guelmim, said the death toll stood at 31, including eight members of the same family who died after floods swept away their vehicle.
The Arabic-language dailies Al Massae and Al Ahdath gave death tolls of 16 and 22, respectively.
About 130 all-terrain rescue vehicles and 335 Zodiac inflatables and other boats were being used, the interior ministry said, in a statement carried by the North African country's MAP news agency.
The agency said at least 14 people remained missing in Guelmim, 200km south of Agadir.
The national weather service warned that an alert over more heavy rainfall would remain in place until midday on Monday.
It said about 100 mud-brick homes were partly or totally destroyed in the south, and 100 roads cut off, including six national highways.
Boulid told Al Jazeera that authorities were warned that the amount of rainfall would trigger floods but chose to ignore them.
"It was forecast that more than 100 millimetres of rain would fall, but nothing has been done. They just waited for the catastrophe to unfold," Boulid said.
Flash floods are common in Morocco, where four children drowned in the south in September when they were swept away.
