Death Toll in Iran Floods May Top 300, Officials Say

More than 300 people may have been killed in northeastern Iran by devastating storms and what is thought to be the region’s worst flooding in 200 years, officials said Monday.

At least 170 people had died in the floods and hopes were fading for 160 still missing, officials said.

Army and Red Crescent helicopters scoured swaths of flooded farmland for the fourth day Monday looking for survivors.

“There is a high possibility that most of the missing may be dead, but because of the bad weather, we cannot find them,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Habibzadeh Dabagh, a local official in the affected area, as saying. “Based on the reports of the rescue teams, the death toll will definitely rise.”

Rescuers have so far picked up about 7,500 villagers, but some 800 others are still stranded in the worst-hit areas in Golestan and Khorasan provinces, state radio said.

The flash floods hit Friday after unseasonal heavy rains began to lash the area. About 37,000 acres of farmland are now under water and about 1,500 houses have been destroyed.