ALGIERS, October 3, 2008 (KUNA) -- The death toll of flash floods in Ghardaia, 600 km south of Algiers, went up to 38, a medical source said here Friday. Ghardaia Hospital has received 38 corpses up till early Friday, a hospital source told
Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), predicting the death toll to increase up to 60. As many as 100 were injured and several others went missing at the flood-hit area, it added.
Algerian authorities have so far provided 400 tens of food, 200,000 blankets, over 1,000 tents, electricity generators and a water treatment plant to the population of the area. Up to 600 homes have been inundated by flash floods.
The rains, which began on Tuesday, have cut gas and electricity in Ghardaia. Ghardaia is one of several fortified Berber medieval settlements on the northern edge of the Sahara, about 600 kilometres (375 miles) south of the capital, Algiers.
Algeria has been hit by several floods in recent years. A 48-hour deluge in the north of the country in 2001 killed at least 700 people and injured hundreds more.