Saudi Arabia: 4 children drown in Mecca floods
Rain forecast in several parts of the kingdom until Sunday
Cairo: Four children from a family died after their car was swept away by torrents resulting from heavy rains in the Saudi city of Mecca, according to a media report.
The tragedy happened after the car, which was carrying their family, swerved due to the flooding in eastern Mecca and was swept away by a strong torrent that forced the vehicle to ram into the wall of a local farm and clung there, Okaz newspaper said.
The Arab expatriate family included the parents and six children.
Civil defence personnel managed to save the parents and two of their children aged 13 and two years.
The four others — three girls and a boy — were swept away by the flooding. The bodies of the three girls were later recovered while search is ongoing for the fourth, the report said.
Mecca was earlier this week lashed by torrential rains accompanied by lighting and thunder.
Likewise, several parts of Saudi Arabia have recently witnessed erratic weather including heavy rains that resulted in floods, which caused havoc and deaths.
On Friday, two young men drowned in a rain-hit picnic spot in Al Lith governorate, part of the Mecca region.
One man initially jumped into falls in the area and the other rushed to save him, but both drowned, according to Saudi news portal Sabq. Their bodies were later retrieved.
The Saudi National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) forecast rainfall, accompanied by strong winds lowering visibility, and thunderstorms in the Mecca region until Wednesday night.
There are chances for rainfall in some areas of the kingdom until Sunday, an NCM official said.
The centre spokesman Hussain Al Qahtani told Saudi TV Al Ekhbariya that rains are likely in the regions of Al Jouf, H’ail, Mecca, Medina, Asir and Jazan through Sunday.