Heavy rains in the Gulf desert state of the United Arab Emirates caused flooding, traffic jams, car accidents and school closures on Tuesday, after four weather-related deaths at the weekend.
Some residents of the emirate of Sharjah were trapped in their homes by high waters, an AFP photographer reported. Cars were almost completely submerged on some roads.
Sharjah residents waded through the water with rolled-up pants, while trucks looked like barges as they ploughed through the flooded streets.
Gulf News reported on its website that a major thoroughfare, the Dubai-Sharjah sector of the Emirates Road bypass, was closed due to the flooding.
Traffic on Dubai's main Sheikh Zayed Road slowed to a crawl, with several accidents sighted. Many secondary roads in the city were flooded due to lack of drainage facilities.
Dubai's education ministry issued a statement calling for schools to close on Tuesday and Wednesday because of flooding fears, said a Dubai school director. Some, but not all, schools in Sharjah were closed.
There was no immediate report of fresh casualties, after three people were killed on Saturday in Sharjah from being electrocuted while standing in storm water.
A woman also died on Saturday and 13 other people were injured in the collapse of the entrance to the "Global Village" annual shopping fair as heavy wind and rains lashed Dubai.
The latest rain in Dubai stopped by mid-day, although the official news agency WAM forecast new downpours in Sharjah later on Tuesday.
WAM also reported flooding in Fujairah, in the east of the seven-member oil-rich UAE federation, where "wadis, (valleys), farmlands and low lands were inundated due to rain water."
Share This Article With Planet Earth
