The death toll from flash floods in Jordan's Dead Sea area has risen to at least 21, according to the country's civil defence, as search and rescue operations continued for a second day.

The victims were mostly schoolchildren from the capital, Amman, who were visiting the area on a field trip, Petra news agency reported on Friday.

They were swept away when a heavy downpour on Thursday sent flash floods towards the area where the students and other picnickers were sitting.

At least 35 people were injured and a nearby bridge also collapsed, according to local media reports.

Jordanian civil defence said in a statement that some people are still unaccounted for, raising fears that the death toll could rise.

Doctor Mahmoud Zureigat, general manager of al-Basheer public hospital in Amman where the victims were transported, said the dead arrived with severe injuries to their bodies.

"Though the final cause of death was drowning, all of the victims however suffered from broken bones and other injuries because they were hit by huge boulders as they were being swept away by the flash flood," he told Al Jazeera.

Zureigat said almost all of the dead have been claimed by their families.

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz was on the scene to oversee the rescue mission on Friday. He said he would form a fact-finding committee to investigate the circumstances of the deaths, according to Petra.

For his part, King Abdullah II cancelled a trip to Bahrain to follow the rescue operations, ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast and announced a three-day mourning period.

The king expressed his "anger and "great sadness" in a Twitter post on Friday and promised to hold those responsible to account.

"My sorrow and pain are severe and great, and I am only as angry with all those who failed to take action that could have prevented this painful incident," he said.

"I console Jordan and myself for losing members of my large family. The pain and suffering of every family is my own pain and suffering as well. We belong to God and to him we return."

'Accountability'

On the day of the school's field trip, Jordan's national weather and government agencies had issued severe weather warnings.

Jordanian schools must submit detailed plans of their intended field trips and obtain the Ministry of Education's approval before going on a trip.

Education Minister Azmi Mahaftha said the private school - Amman-based Victoria College - was responsible, not his ministry, for "providing wrong information on their field trip application", according to local media reports.

Meanwhile, several people from the area where the floods hit told Al Jazeera that they had repeatedly complained about the bridge that collapsed to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. They said that no action had been nor had the bridge been inspected.

Hasan al-Ghwairi, a local resident, said the bridge and the roads in the area were in poor condition.

"Despite our protests and asking for repairs, the government never paid attention to us," he said.

Al Jazeera contacted the Jordanian government for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.

"We will investigate this tragic incident and hold those responsible to account and bring them to justice if found responsible," Ghazi al-Hawamleh, a member of parliament from the southern city of Tafelieh, told Al Jazeera.

He added that there must be accountability for anyone found to be responsible for the bridge's collapse, which could include the construction contractor and the minister of public works, who would have authorised the construction.

Jordanians took to social media to express condolences to the families of the victims while criticising the government for poor infrastructure in the country and a lack of accountability.

Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports</s>AMMAN (Reuters) - Rescuers combed the shores of Jordan’s Dead Sea early on Friday, searching for survivors, after flash floods killed at least 21 people, most of them school children in a bus that was swept away.

The floods, which followed torrential rain, poured through valleys and deep ravines sweeping people, vehicles and livestock to the shores of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.

Thirty-seven people were rescued in a major operation involving helicopters and divers, civil defense sources said. Rescue operations continued for other possible survivors.

The school bus that was swept away carried 44 children and teachers who were on a school picnic trip in the popular tourist spot, police chief Brigadier General Farid al Sharaa told state television.

The majority of dead were schoolchildren. The dead also included three Iraqis and a 20-year-old woman who was with the children on the school bus, a civil defense source said.

King Abdullah described the disaster as a “huge tragedy that hurt all of us” and the national flag was lowered in mourning as public opinion and politicians began raising questions in local media outlets about the preparedness of emergencies services to cope with such a disaster.

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said it appeared the school had broken regulations by going ahead with the trip, which had been banned in the Dead Sea area because of bad weather. He also called for an investigation into infrastructure in the area.

Health Minister Ghazi al Zibn said most of the injured had left the hospital in the area near the Dead Sea. At least eight people were still missing, a medical source said.

A bridge on one of the cliffs of the Dead Sea collapsed under the force of the rains, the first such after the end of summer.

Neighboring Israel sent search-and-rescue helicopters to assist, an Israeli military statement said. The team, dispatched at Amman’s request, was operating on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea.

A Jordanian official said Israel had offered to help and the kingdom requested a helicopter with the technology to find buried bodies in mud that would accelerate the searches.

The kingdom, which shares the longest border with Israel and have a common peace treaty, has a long a history of cooperation with its neighbor in natural disasters.

Jordan helped Israel in 2016 with fire-fighting equipment after a rash of fires that burned for days, straining Israel firefighters.

An Israeli helicopter pilot who participated in the search said that close to 10 Israeli aircraft and drones had been deployed.</s>The death toll from flash floods near Jordan’s shore of the Dead Sea rose to 20 on Friday, in what Civil Defense officials said was one of the deadliest incidents in the kingdom involving schoolchildren.

The search for survivors continued after daybreak, with helicopters and teams with sniffer dogs scouring the rocky slopes near the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley.

The body of a 12-year-old girl was found early on Friday and several more people were still feared missing, said the director general of the Civil Defense, Mustafa al-Basaiah.

Thirteen of the dead and 26 of about three dozen people injured in Thursday’s flash floods were middle school children, officials said. They said three of those killed, including two students, were Iraqis living in Amman.

The incident began early Thursday afternoon when 37 students from an Amman private school, along with seven adult chaperones, as well as other visitors were taking a break at hot springs several kilometers from the Dead Sea shores. Sudden heavy rains sent flash floods surging toward them from higher ground, sweeping them away, some as far as the Dead Sea, officials said.

A complex rescue operation involving helicopters, divers, sniffer dogs and hundreds of searchers continued into the night Thursday and resumed Friday. Israel’s military said it also dispatched a rescue team at the request of the Jordanian government.

Brig. Gen. Farid al-Sharaa, a Civil Defense spokesman, said Friday that the flooding was one of the deadliest incidents in recent memory involving schoolchildren.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II canceled a planned working visit to Bahrain, initially scheduled for Friday. He was to have been the keynote speaker at a security conference. In a message on his Twitter account, the monarch said that “the pain of each father, mother and family is my pain.” He also expressed anger toward those who he said “failed to take measures that could have prevented this painful incident,” but stopped short of assigning specific blame.

The king ordered the Jordanian flag at the palace’s main entrance to fly at half-staff for three days in mourning for the victims of the flood.

The U.N. secretary general and several regional leaders sent condolences.

The low-lying Dead Sea area is prone to flash flooding when rain water rushes down from adjacent hills. In April, 10 Israeli students were killed in a flash flood while on a hiking trip near the Dead Sea.</s>DEAD SEA, Jordan: At least 18 people, mainly school children and teachers, were killed on Thursday (Oct 25) by a flash flood during a school outing near Jordan's Dead Sea in one of the worst disasters in the kingdom in years, rescuers and hospital workers 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.

Many of those killed were children under 14. A number of families picnicking in the popular destination were also among the dead and injured, rescuers said, without giving a breakdown of numbers.

Hundreds of families and relatives converged on Shounah hospital a few kilometres from the resort area. Relatives sobbed and searched for details about the missing children, a witness said.

The flooding occurred after heavy rainfall, the first such rains after the end of the summer season.

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said 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.

Razzaz said divers and civil defence search teams would be conducting search operations deep inside the Dead Sea throughout the night.

A father of one of the survivors said a bus with 37 school children 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 cancelled a trip to Bahrain to follow the rescue operations, state media said.

Neighbouring 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.

Civil defence spokesman Captain Iyad al Omar told Reuters the number of casualties was expected to rise. Rescue workers using flashlights were searching the cliffs near the shore of the Dead Sea where bodies had been found.

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.</s>AMMAN (Reuters) - At least five school children died and 16 were missing after flash floods engulfed a spot near Jordan’s Dead Sea on Thursday where around 40 children and their teachers were on an outing, two civil defense sources said.

A major rescue operation is underway and search teams have rescued 11 people some of whom are in a serious condition, the sources told Reuters.</s>At least 18 people have died and several others are missing after flooding hit a school trip in Jordan's Dead Sea area.

Most of the victims are children, many younger than 14, from a private school in the country's capital Amman.

They had been on an outing with chaperones when, according to a witness, floodwater swept their bus into a valley.

A rescue operation was launched with police helicopters and hundreds of soldiers saving 34 people, some of whom are in a serious condition.

A number of families were having picnics in the area when the flood hit and they were also among the dead and injured.

Relatives of those affected have been gathering outside a local hospital, waiting for news.

Huge spotlights were trained on the area on Thursday night and 10 more students had reportedly been found and were awaiting rescue.

The Israeli military sent helicopters to help the Jordanian emergency services.

Jordan's prime minister Omar Razzaz visited the scene to oversee the rescue mission.

Later on his Twitter account, he appeared to suggest there had been something amiss in the school's application to run the trip.

After offering his condolences to the families affected and best wishes for recovery of those injured, he said: "The basic lesson is that everyone must abide by regulations and instructions."

He posted a copy of the school's field trip permit, which had named a different destination - not the Dead Sea.

He said the correspondence indicated a lack of "clear commitment to the conditions", adding there would be an investigation and those at fault would be "held accountable".

Jordan's King Abdullah cancelled a trip to Bahrain to follow the rescue.</s>AMMAN: Eight school pupils died Thursday when their bus was swept away by flash floods near the Dead Sea in Jordan, emergency services said. A further 11 students were injured in the incident, said an official from the civil defence, Jordan´s fire service, who asked not to be named. "Heavy rains caused a flash flood close to the Dead Sea that washed away a school bus carrying 37 students and seven minders," the official said. -</s>At least 20 people, most of them schoolchildren, were killed in flash floods in Jordan, the emergency services said Friday, in what a government newspaper dubbed a "Tragedy at the Dead Sea".

Another 35 people were injured following heavy rains on Thursday, including members of the security forces involved in rescue operations, a civil defence official told AFP, updating earlier tolls.

A security source said rescuers were still searching for eight people missing in the Dead Sea area, a popular tourist attraction around 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Amman.

"Most of the dead were schoolchildren aged 11 to 14 taking part in a school trip to the Dead Sea region" when their bus was swept away by the floodwaters, he said.

The floodwaters had carried away schoolchildren into the sea after they had descended from the bus.

Also among the dead were passers-by who had been picnicking in the area, the civil defence said, adding that a nearby bridge had collapsed.

Jordanian television reported that King Abdullah II had cancelled a planned visit to Bahrain to monitor developments.

"My sadness and sorrow are matched only by my anger at anyone who did not take the steps that could have prevented this painful incident," the king wrote on Twitter.

Government newspaper Al-Rai carried the headline "Tragedy at the Dead Sea" on its front page, while the private Al-Ghad daily said it was a "Black Day".

A medical source told AFP three Iraqi pupils were among the dead.

Private television station Roya showed an Iraqi man crying and saying: "My wife died a month ago and today my son died."

The Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, is surrounded by steep valleys and gullies that frequently see flash floods and landslides in autumn and winter.

He said the bus had taken a route not agreed upon by the ministry and that the organiser of the trip bore full responsibility.

An official at Jordan's education ministry said the school had received permission around a week ago to visit Al-Azraq, the site of a nature reserve east of Amman.

Social media users said several parents had at the last minute refused to let their children join the trip, after Jordan's meteorological office warned of severe weather conditions and possible mudslides.

Roads leading to the area were closed on Friday morning "to allow search and rescue operations", the Directorate of General Security said.

Jordanian television showed scenes from the rescue operation, with dozens of security personnel and local residents searching near the shore of the Dead Sea, with boats also deployed in its waters which had turned brown from mud.

Neighbouring Israel's military said that at the request of the Jordanian government, it had sent helicopters and forces specialised in search and rescue to assist in the operation.</s>The death toll from flash flooding near Jordan’s shore of the Dead Sea has risen to 20 in what officials said was one of the deadliest incidents in the kingdom involving schoolchildren.

The search for survivors continued after daybreak, with helicopters and teams with sniffer dogs scouring the rocky slopes near the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley.

The body of a 12-year-old girl was found early on Friday and several more people are still missing, said the director general of the Civil Defence, Mustafa al-Basaiah.

Thirteen of the dead and 26 of about three dozen people injured by the flash flood were middle school children, officials said.

The incident began early on Thursday afternoon when 37 pupils from an Amman private school, seven adult chaperones and other visitors were taking a break at a hot spring several miles from the Dead Sea shores.

Sudden heavy rain sent flash floods surging toward them from higher ground, sweeping them away, some as far as the Dead Sea, officials said.

A complex rescue operation involving helicopters, divers, sniffer dogs and hundreds of searchers continued into the night on Thursday and resumed on Friday.

Israel’s military said it dispatched a rescue team at the request of the Jordanian government.

Brigadier General Farid al-Sharaa, a Civil Defence spokesman, said the flooding was one of the deadliest incidents in recent memory involving schoolchildren.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II cancelled a planned working visit to Bahrain, initially scheduled for Friday. He was to have been the keynote speaker at a security conference.

The king ordered the Jordanian flag at the palace’s main entrance to fly at half-mast for three days in mourning for the victims.

The UN secretary general and several regional leaders sent condolences.

The low-lying Dead Sea area is prone to flash flooding when rainwater rushes down from adjacent hills. In April, 10 Israeli students were killed in a flash flood on a hiking trip near the Dead Sea.</s>14 killed as Jordan flash flood sweeps away students on trip

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Flash floods swept away a group of teachers and students who were on a school trip near the Dead Sea on Thursday, killing 14 and wounding 22, a website linked to Jordan's military 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.

Al-Zaben initially put the death toll at 10, but the Hala Akhbar website, linked to the military, later reported that 14 members of the group were killed and 22 injured.

The Israeli military said it dispatched an elite search and rescue team to the area at the request of the Jordanian government.

Jordan's state news agency Petra said Prime Minister Omar Razzaz was at the scene to oversee the rescue mission.
Flash floods near the Dead Sea in Jordan kill at least 21 people including 19 children on a school trip and injure 43 others.