Algiers: Six people including two children were killed in 48 hours as flash floods swept away their cars in heavy rainfall over northwest Algeria, rescue services announced Thursday.
Civil defence spokesman Colonel Farouk Achour told AFP the children and a man died when a wadi flooded late Wednesday in the Tiaret region, 330 kilometres southwest of Algiers.
One of the children was earlier reported as missing.
Three other people drowned on Tuesday night when a river burst its banks in Al Bayadh, 800 kilometres southwest of the capital.
Emergency services said they carried out several rescue operations for Tiaret residents stranded in their homes or cars and at a school in the neighbouring region of Tissemsilt.
Meanwhile in Egypt, torrential rains battered New Cairo, mainly its Fifth Settlement quarter, forcing power outages and stranded dozens inside cars for hours.
As reports about the destructive downpours made local headlines, senior government officials went to the area and oversaw efforts to pump rain waters from the streets.
