Mum and son found dead after flash flooding in tourist hotspot as hundreds are evacuated

News.com.au

06-05-2025

A mother and son tourist pair have died in flash floods that hit an ancient city, as hundreds were evacuated.
Dramatic footage shows water cascading into Petra, Jordan – one of the Seven Wonders of the World – and authorities urging everyone out.
Streams sprung up and poured down the mountainsides into the famous gully, gushing past the elaborate carved palace.
Search and rescue teams found the bodies of the Belgian holiday-makers on Monday, a day after the woman and her three children were reported missing.
The other two kids were found alive on Sunday evening.
The family was part of a group of 18 tourists on an adventure tour in Wadi al-Nakhil.
A local official said the group was swept up in lightning floods that swept down from the mountains.
Fourteen other tourists, all Czechs, were rescued on Sunday.
The search was called off at 2am due to dangerous weather conditions and resumed on Monday, when the devastating discovery was made.
Jordan often contends with flash flooding when heavy rains overwhelms the bone-dry desert valleys.
More than 30 people perished when flash flooding hit Petra and Jordan's Dead Sea coast in two separate disasters in 2018.
A school bus carrying 37 pupils and seven members of staff was washed away during a field trip near the Dead Sea.
Some 18 passengers died, most of whom were pupils younger than 14.
At least three people were killed in 2021 when their car was swept away.
Heavy rains began this season after low-pressure swept into southern Jordan, beckoning intense rain.
The dry valleys around Petra were transformed into rivers – including the Siq passageway which is the narrow entrance to the heritage site.
Footage posted to social media show panicked tourists fleeing to high ground as water gushed down the surrounding rock faces.
Authorities kicked into action and began shepherding the crowds to safety.
Petra is a revered archaeological site where buildings have been carved straight out of the rose-coloured rock.
People first carved into the mountainsides 7000 years ago, when nomadic Arabs called the Nabataeans settled there.
The most famous structure, Al-Khazneh, was crafted in the first century AD, when Petra's population peaked at around 20,000.