Death toll of Egypt's 3-day floods rises to 26

The death toll of Egypt's massive floods since Thursday has risen to 26, the Egyptian Health Ministry said in a statement Saturday.

The ministry said that heavy rains and floods resulted in the death of nine people in South Sinai province, nine in the Red Sea province and eight in Upper Egypt's Sohag province, noting 72 people in total were injured.

The ministry instructed its departments in flood-stricken provinces to establish clinics with doctors and nurses inside special camps for receiving citizens whose homes are ruined by the floods.

It also ordered each clinic to be provided with an ambulance to immediately transfer critical cases to nearby hospitals.

The recurrence of the massive wave of floods that ended Saturday early morning is still uncertain.

"It will be checked via satellites on Sunday and then we can tell whether it may repeat or not," Wahid Saudi, media spokesman of the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, told Xinhua.

Seasonal heavy rains and floods hit Egypt almost every year, with impoverished areas of poor infrastructure suffering the most.

Similar floods about the same time last year left at least eight people dead in Egypt's Delta province of Beheira. Endit