RIYADH: Thirteen people have died and four more are missing in Saudi Arabia after downpours caused flash floods in several areas of the kingdom, the civil defence authorities said on Wednesday.

Two others died in flash floods in neighbouring Oman, local media reported, as cloudbursts swept across most Gulf countries.

The official Saudi SPA state news agency quoted Colonel Abdullah al-Harethi as saying people died in several areas including in the capital Riyadh, Baha in the south, Hail in the north and in the west.

Harethi urged people to avoid wadi valleys and plains that have been flooded by heavy rainfall that began on Friday.

Television footage showed 4X4 cars stuck in the middle of wadis and people clinging to a tree to escape fast-flowing flood waters.

The vast Arabian Peninsula country has not experienced such a high volume of rainfall for 25 years.—AFP