Oman floods
Royal Oman Police search for members of missing Indian family. Image Credit: ROP

Muscat: Rescue teams, searching for a missing six-member expatriate family, have retrieved four bodies of them in a flooded area in Oman, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) said on Thursday.

The family of an Indian healthcare worker went Saturday on a picnic to the Wadi Bani Khalid, about 200 kilometres from Muscat, where they were trapped inside a vehicle by torrential rains. The family head managed to leave the vehicle and survived by clutching to a palm tree.

Other members of the family including the man’s parents, wife and three children have since been missing after they were swept away by flood water.

Omani authorities have since Saturday launched a massive-scale search operation for them.

“Search efforts for the Asian family have culminated until now in finding four bodies,” the ROP said in a statement. It added that two of the four bodies have been identified.

“Work teams continue research for the two [missing] others,” the police added.

In the past few days, Oman has experienced heavy rains that resulted in blocking several roads and stranding many people. Authorities have rescued several people who were trapped inside cars in water-drenched areas.