Heavy rains, wind and flash floods in Mideast leave 5 people dead, including British tourist

Storms in Mideast kill British tourist, 4 others

CAIRO — Heavy rains and flash floods left five people dead across the Middle East on Monday, including a British tourist who was killed when a sailboat capsized on the Nile River.

Egyptian police said the British tourist was with three other tourists on a Nile cruise when their boat overturned in heavy winds and sudden rain. The three others survived, but there was no information on their nationalities or identities.

An Israeli motorist drowned when his car got caught in a flash flood in Israel’s south, where stormy weather also blocked the main road to the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

The heavy rains also collapsed a dozen mud brick homes in southern Egypt and killed two women there, while an Egyptian man died in a flash flooding in northern Sinai, close to Egypt’s border with Israel.

Israel temporarily closed its southern border crossings with Egypt and Jordan due to the unusually heavy rains and expected flooding along the border. A bridge collapsed near a cargo crossing between Egypt and Israel.

Egyptian police also said the bad weather caused power failures in several neighborhoods in the famous tourist town of Luxor. The electricity shortages disrupted Nile cruises, sailboat and ferry schedules.

A weather report warned the unpredictable weather could continue until late Monday.