(Reuters) — Twenty-six people were killed and dozens more injured after two days of heavy flooding hit several Egyptian cities on Friday and Saturday (October 28-29), Egypt’s health ministry said.
The rain hit in the early hours of Friday (October 28) morning sweeping away cars and destroying houses.
Seven people were killed in the Red Sea city of Ras Ghareb, health officials added.
Authorities said two main roads in the city were closed due to the floods and search parties were underway looking for missing people.
One father who lost his two sons said he was at sea when lightning struck his boat, throwing the boys, aged 16 and 13, into the water.
“The lightning struck into the water, close to where we were. I told my sons we need to hide but they told me that they’ve never seen this (lightning) hurt people before, but I told them that this incident happened once long before they were born,” Mefreh Abbas said.
“Lightning struck again and the rudder flew from my hands and sparks flew everywhere, some caught in my hair and my hand was burnt. And then I looked to our sails and found they were all burned and both my children were drowning, one on each side,” he added.
The floods also hit several other Egyptian cities including the red sea tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
According to the Egyptian health ministry 72 people were injured.