More than 20 killed in south Iran floods

Flooding in southern Iran has killed at least 21 people and left others missing following heavy rainfall in the largely arid country, state media reported yesterday.

"Twenty-one people were killed and two are still missing," in the floods that affected several towns in and around Estahban county in the southern province of Fars, Hossein Darvishi, provincial head of the Red Crescent Society, was quoted as saying by state TV.

Videos posted on local media and social media showed cars caught in the rising waters of the Roodball river and carried away while parents tried to rescue their children from the vehicles.

Estahban is 174 kilometres east of the provincial capital Shiraz. The tragedy happened on a summer weekend in Iran, when families tend to head to cooler areas such as riversides, lakesides and valleys.