Youths missing, hurt in Israel flash floods

OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS: Several young people were missing and others badly hurt on Thursday as flash floods swept through an area of southern Israel where they were hiking near the Dead Sea, police and media reports said.

Police did not specify how many students were missing but media reports said at least seven hikers were in critical condition, from a group of about 25 from a pre-army preparatory programme. Students in such programmes are usually around the age of 18. "Police and emergency units continuing to search for a number of missing students in the south near the southern part of the Dead Sea," a police statement said.

Military helicopters were taking part in the search in an area known as the Tzafit Stream. Two teenagers died in a series of floods that hit Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, the first of three forecast days of heavy rain.