Death toll of Morocco flood-hit bus rises to 17

Rabat: Update: At least 17 people were killed in Morocco when flood waters overturned their bus in the kingdom's southeast, authorities said Monday.

Rescuers have been searching for bodies since the accident on Sunday, when the bus flipped on a bridge in a valley near the city of Errachidia, authorities said.

They said a further 29 passengers, with various injuries but in "stable" condition, had been transferred to a hospital in Errachidia.

Rescue workers were continuing their search, after six dead passengers were initially found at the site and another 11 in the relief operation.

The bus driver, who had at first had been counted among the missing, turned up Monday at the hospital and was being treated under police guard ahead of questioning, local officials said.

Wounded passengers, interviewed by Medi1TV from their hospital beds, told of their ordeal.

"We were on the road when, all of a sudden, we were surrounded by water," a woman said, while another said: "The bus couldn't go forwards or backwards anymore, it just toppled over."

Morocco has been hit by violent storms this summer, sparking flash flooding in its mountainous interior.

At the end of August, a flood hit a football pitch killing eight people in the southern region of Taroudant.

And in July, 15 people were killed in a landslide caused by flash floods on a road south of Marrakesh.

Floods are common in the North African country. In 2014, they killed around 50 people and caused considerable damage.

Morocco's state news agency says 14 people have been killed and 29 others injured when a bus overturned on a bridge amid flooding in south-central Morocco.

The MAP agency says authorities are still searching for any others missing, and they recovered three bodies on Monday morning.

The bus overturned Sunday near Errachidia, in a usually arid region hit by flooding after torrential rains.

It was traveling between the coastal city of Casablanca and Rissani, a town close to Morocco's eastern border with Algeria.

MAP says the bus driver was initially listed among the missing but then turned himself in for treatment at a hospital on Monday. It wasn't immediately clear how many people in total were on the bus.