At least 18 school children died on Thursday in flash flooding in Jordan, rescuers and hospital workers said.
The students from a private school and their adult chaperones were touring near the Dead Sea when heavy rains led to flash floods in the area, Health Minister Ghazi al-Zaben and official media said.
Thirty-four people were rescued in a major operation involving police helicopters and hundreds of army troops, police chief Brigadier General Farid al Sharaa told state television. Some of those rescued were in a serious condition.
Jordan's state news agency Petra said Prime Minister Omar Razzaz was at the scene to oversee the rescue mission.
He said that it appeared the school had broken regulations by the ministry of education that forbade trips to the Dead Sea due to bad weather and pledged an investigation that would hold anyone found responsible for any wrongdoing accountable.
Hundreds of families and relatives converged on Shounah hospital a few kilometers from the resort area.
Israel sent search-and-rescue helicopters to assist, an Israeli military statement said adding the team dispatched at Amman’s request, was operating on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea.
A father of one of the survivors said a bus with 37 schoolchildren and seven teachers had been on a trip to the resort area. They were caught in a narrow stream as sudden torrential rainstorm flooded the area.
“The children tried to escape the floods by going to the bus but its doors were closed,” said Abu Yousef told reporters.
“The teachers tried to save the children but the floods intensity made it impossible,” he added saying the children were swept to the shores of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth.
King Abdullah canceled a trip to Bahrain to follow the rescue operations, state media said.
There have been deadly incidents involving flash floods in Jordan in the past and in 1963, 23 French tourists were swept away by flash floods when they were trapped in the ancient Petra city.
