Wednesday, November 25, 2009 JEDDAH: Flooding killed at least 11 people in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Wednesday after a heavy downpour, with more deaths feared, a civil defence official said. The 11 victims were believed to have drowned, the official said, requesting anonymity. The storm struck the western Saudi city in the morning, flooding streets. In one part of Jeddah, a bus could be seen submerged under several metres (yards) of water in an underpass. A witness told a French news agency by telephone he had seen several bodies beside another bus that overturned in the storm. Major roads remained gridlocked by traffic late on Wednesday after the rain stopped and floodwaters receded, witnesses said. The storm also stranded hundreds of Muslim pilgrims in buses headed from Jeddah to Makkah for the first full day of the annual hajj. Traffic accidents were reported on the 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch from Jeddah to Islam's holiest city, where some 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims are gathered for the hajj.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 JEDDAH: Flooding killed at least 11 people in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Wednesday after a heavy downpour, with more deaths feared, a civil defence official said. The 11 victims were believed to have drowned, the official said, requesting anonymity. The storm struck the western Saudi city in the morning, flooding streets. In one part of Jeddah, a bus could be seen submerged under several metres (yards) of water in an underpass. A witness told a French news agency by telephone he had seen several bodies beside another bus that overturned in the storm. Major roads remained gridlocked by traffic late on Wednesday after the rain stopped and floodwaters receded, witnesses said. The storm also stranded hundreds of Muslim pilgrims in buses headed from Jeddah to Makkah for the first full day of the annual hajj. Traffic accidents were reported on the 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch from Jeddah to Islam's holiest city, where some 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims are gathered for the hajj.
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