Riyadh arrests 40 officials over Jeddah flood

At least 40 Saudi officials and contractors have been arrested following a probe into the November flood, which killed over 120 people in Jeddah.

The authorities, including a number of senior officials of the Red Sea city's mayor office were rounded up by two dozen police officers on Sunday, AFP reported.

An assistant to the Jeddah mayor, four department heads, and the former head of the city's projects division were among the detainees.

More than 30 other officials were also arrested to be questioned by an investigation committee, which was formed at the order of King Abdullah and is led by Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of the Mecca region, which also includes Jeddah.

"We will not show any leniency to any official who is found negligent in this case," King Abdullah told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah in an interview published Saturday.

The investigation has been launched into the uncommonly heavy rainfall, which sparked a flash flood in the kingdom's second largest city on November 25.

The flood which drowned 120 people, left thousands of others homeless and more than 7,000 vehicles destroyed in the city.

It provoked outrage among the citizens, who subsequently called for the ouster of public officials for not keeping their promises to build adequate drainage in the city.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114818§ionid=351020205.