RIYADH: Two people died in the flooding caused by violent thunderstorms which paralyzed Riyadh this week, Saudi newspapers reported on Wednesday.
Some 155 people had to be rescued as cars, buses and commercial vehicles stalled in up to two meters of water in underpasses and low-lying roads when the flooding hit during the afternoon rush hour on Monday, civil defense spokesman Abdullah Al-Ghaffari told the Saudi Gazette.
No details were given about the two people who died.
Riyadh has not seen such heavy rains, accompanied by hail, since the desert capital was inundated in 1996, according to meteorologists.
Fearing more bad weather, city officials called a state of emergency and shut schools on Tuesday, but the anticipated storms never materialized.
Government meteorological officials warned that more heavy rainfall could occur on Thursday or Friday, the Saudi weekend.
Saudi Arabia has witnessed uncommonly heavy rainfall in the past six months, with flash floods in Jeddah in November drowning 120 people and leaving thousands homeless.
Last month, a man, his wife and their four children were killed when floodwaters caused by heavy rains swept their car away in the kingdom’s southwestern Assir region.
