A cyclone that made landfall in Oman on Sunday has killed 13 people, and others are missing as the storm moved farther inland and weakened.
Authorities in Oman said they found the body of a man who disappeared when flood waters swept him away from his vehicle.
On Sunday as the storm made landfall, a child drowned and two foreigners from Asia died in a landslide.
The National Committee for Emergency Management announced on Monday afternoon seven additional deaths from the storm, without elaborating.
In Iran, state television said rescuers found the body of one of five fishers who went missing off Pasabandar, a fishing village near the border with Pakistan.
Earlier on Sunday, the Iranian deputy parliament speaker, Ali Nikzad, said he feared as many as six fishers had been killed because of the cyclone.
In Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, 122 people were treated in hospital on Sunday after a dust storm spun up by the cyclone caused eye, heart and lung problems, said Abbasali Arjmandi, the governor of the city of Zabol. Eighteen had needed to remain in hospital for further care, he said.
India’s Meteorological Department, the top forecaster for cyclones that sweep the Indian Ocean, said gusts from Shaheen were at 90km/h (55mph) and would continue to weaken. It predicted the storm would weaken into a tropical depression in the coming hours. Shaheen made landfall with winds reaching up to 150km/h (93mph).
Omani state television broadcast images of flooded roadways and valleys as the storm churned deeper into the sultanate, its outer edges reaching the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.
The Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, had issued warnings to residents that the storm was coming. Winds had picked up from Sunday, sweeping across the grounds of Dubai’s newly opened Expo 2020.
A cyclone is the same as a hurricane or a typhoon; their names change only because of their location. Hurricanes are spawned east of the international dateline. Typhoons develop west of the line. They are known as cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Australia.
