At least eight people have been killed in flash floods in the southern regions of Iran due to heavy rains expected to last until later this week.
“Following the floods and rains of the past few days in the southern regions of the country, we have seen an increase in casualties and deaths,” spokesman for the Emergency Medical Services Mojtaba Khaledi said on Tuesday, IRNA reported.
“So far eight people have died and two are still missing,” Khaledi said, adding that 14 others had been injured.
Five of the deaths occurred in Fars Province, local official Rahim Azadi told IRNA.
Another local official had said Monday that at least two people were killed in flash flooding in the province.
Heavy rain damaged “agriculture, infrastructure, urban and rural housing,” Azadi said.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society has provided “emergency accommodation for more than 3,000 people, and over 20,000 have received relief assistance,” its head of rescue and emergency operations Mehdi Valipour told state television.
“Houses have been flooded and infrastructure such as roads and communication systems have been damaged,” he said, adding that more than 500 teams were providing assistance in parts of the country’s south and east.
Pictures published by the IRCS on Tuesday showed its personnel setting up tents in sports halls and assisting cars trapped on flooded roads or stuck in snow-covered mountain areas.
Relief operations were underway in 87 cities across more than half of Iran’s 31 provinces, it added.
The weather system is expected to last until Friday, an official from Iran’s meteorological agency told state television.
Largely arid, Iran has endured repeated droughts over the past decade, but also regular floods.
In 2019, heavy flooding in the country’s south left at least 76 people dead and caused damage estimated at more than $2 billion.
