In Brief: Egypt floods kill six, displace hundreds

CAIRO, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) - At least six people were killed and hundreds displaced by rain-induced flooding on 18 January in the Sinai Peninsula, the Red Sea port of Hurghada and Aswan Governorate, southern Egypt, according to local officials and media reports.

In Aswan, about 800km south of Cairo, around 41 homes were destroyed by floods that swept through five villages. Government rescue workers evacuated residents and said they found them shelter in nearby youth centres and in open fields.

"We managed to move the residents to safe places and gave them the necessary aid," Mustafa el-Sayed, governor of Aswan, said. "The rescue workers also managed to put out fires that broke out in some homes."

In the Sinai Peninsula, northeastern Egypt, at least two people died, more than a dozen were missing and dozens of houses were destroyed. "The flooding forced rescue workers to use boats to move around," Abdel Fadil Shousha, governor of South Sinai, said.

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