Thursday, September 2, 2010

Three more bodies have been found more than a week after a flash flood hit the Saudi city of Jeddah, raising the death toll to 116, the official news agency SPA has said.

Forty-seven people are still missing and more than 22,000 people have been displaced after their homes were destroyed or damaged in the November 25 flood, said Jeddah civil defence official Mohammed al-Qarni.

On Sunday, officials recovered the bodies of a seven-year-old boy, a woman from Yemen and a Sudanese man, Qarni said, adding that 8,092 homes were heavily damaged and 7,143 cars destroyed in the flood.

King Abdullah has ordered an inquiry into the disaster after thousands of residents expressed outrage that the city’s infrastructure could not handle the inundation after billions of riyals were spent.

In a rare public burst of anger, Jeddah residents took to the internet to demand that top officials of the city and region be sacked.

Three more bodies have been found more than a week after a flash flood hit the Saudi city of Jeddah, raising the death toll to 116, the official news agency SPA has said.

Forty-seven people are still missing and more than 22,000 people have been displaced after their homes were destroyed or damaged in the November 25 flood, said Jeddah civil defence official Mohammed al-Qarni.

On Sunday, officials recovered the bodies of a seven-year-old boy, a woman from Yemen and a Sudanese man, Qarni said, adding that 8,092 homes were heavily damaged and 7,143 cars destroyed in the flood.

King Abdullah has ordered an inquiry into the disaster after thousands of residents expressed outrage that the city’s infrastructure could not handle the inundation after billions of riyals were spent.

In a rare public burst of anger, Jeddah residents took to the internet to demand that top officials of the city and region be sacked.