Death toll from 'exceptional' Morocco floods rises to 18
by AFP Staff Writers
Rabat (AFP) Sept 9, 2024

At least 18 people, including foreigners, died and four others were missing after flooding in the south of Morocco, the interior ministry said Monday, revising an earlier toll of 11.

Ten died in Tata province and three in Errachidia, including a Canadian and a Peruvian, the ministry said. It added that two others lost their lives in Tiznit, two in Tinghir including a Spanish national, and one died in Taroudant.

It did not specify whether the foreign nationals were residents in Morocco or visitors.

Since Friday, usually arid areas in southern Morocco have been drenched in floods caused by massive rainfall, officials said.

Areas in southern Morocco have been affected "by an extremely unstable tropical air mass", the spokesman for the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology, Lhoussaine Youabd, told AFP on Sunday.

This "led to the formation of unstable and violent clouds" that caused massive rainfall, he said, describing the phenomenon as "exceptional".

As a result, the Ouarzazate region received 47 millimetres (1.9 inches) of water in three hours, and Tagounite, near the Algerian border, 170 millimetres between Saturday and Sunday, according to the Moroccan weather service.

Interior ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi said "the volume of precipitation recorded in two days is equivalent to that which these regions normally experience during an entire year".

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