Summary The Interior Ministry said another 200 people had been rescued by security services.
RABAT, Morocco (AP) - Days of unusually heavy rains pounded Morocco s south and unleashed deadly floods that killed 17 people and left 18 missing, according to Interior Ministry.
In the southern city of Guelmim alone, 13 people were killed by a flash flood that roared through a dry river bed, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the national news agency late Sunday. The local press added that many of the dead and missing came from the same families caught in vehicles swept away by the waters.
The Interior Ministry said another 200 people had been rescued by security services, including 40 by helicopter.
Footage on television showed a swiftly running river cutting across a highway, leaving cars stranded in the middle with passengers taking refuge on the roof.
In several cases the waters picked up the ancient Mercedes, inter-city taxis and carried them down river.
Other images showed overturned 18-wheeler trucks by the side of a road under several inches of water as other vehicles slowly drove by.
There has also been flooding around the resort city of Marrakech, highly popular with European tourists, with roads being cut off and tour buses briefly stranded, according to local media.
The press has also reported that dozens of homes have been swept away and bridges cut by the flooding.
