Cairo, Dec 17, (dpa/GNA) – Floods have left 11 people dead in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan, a Kurdish media outlet reported Friday, citing a local official.
The death toll in the Erbil floods has reached 11 people, including a Filipino and a Turkish national, Rudaw news portal said, quoting the province’s mayor Nabaz Abdulhamid.
The official added that the flooding had caused massive havoc, while assessment of the damage was under way.
Earlier Friday, Erbil governor, Omed Khoshnaw, told Rudaw that seven people had died due to the floods, and one more person was killed by a lightning strike.
A 10-month-old child was swept out of his father’s arms, the report said.
The floods resulted from heavy rains that have lashed Erbil and other areas in northern Iraq since Thursday night.
Dozens of houses and cars were also damaged, according to media reports.
Floods also caused the collapse of a bridge in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, the country’s state news agency INA reported.
Security forces were meanwhile evacuating several families stranded by the floodwaters, it added.
The rains hit Iraq after one of the driest years in decades.
GNA