BURAIDAH: The car belonging to a 40-year-old teacher from Onaizah who is thought to have drowned was pulled from a lake in Wadi Al-Rumma (Rumma Valley) yesterday morning.
Civil Defense officials said the owner, Ahmad Abdul Aziz Al-Ruooji, was reported missing more than 10 days ago while driving across the valley, which is flooded due to heavy rains.
“The teacher’s body was not found in the car. We will deploy 80 divers on Tuesday to search for his body,” said Fuhaid Al-Faydi, director of the Civil Defense in Qassim. He added that the search would continue until the teacher, who is thought to be dead, is found.
“More than 32 Civil Defense officers and divers have taken part in the search for the teacher in the last 10 days,” said Ibrahim Abalkhail, spokesman for the Civil Defense. “The Qassim Civil Defense was supported by divers from Riyadh and Makkah.”
Civil Defense forces had to divert the flow of water away from the place Al-Ruooji’s car had reportedly gone down to allow divers to search. A source said underwater visibility was very low due to mud and debris.
Al-Ruooji insisted on crossing the valley and ignored a friend who, while traveling together, warned him not to continue the journey. Al-Ruooji’s friend disembarked from the car after failing to convince him.
Eyewitnesses said the teacher’s car was taken away by strong current and was seen overturning nine times before disappearing under water.
Meanwhile, water from the valley, the Arabian Peninsula’s longest, stopped at sand dunes near the town of Al-Jaalah in Asyah governorate, some 60 kilometers east of Buraidah. Water had been moving east for the past three weeks traveling over 300 kilometers.
Qassim province is divided by the valley, which crosses the entire region from the west to the northeast, stretching about 600 kilometers from a location close to Madinah to the Truayhat Dunes in the east and northeast of the province.
The valley has claimed the lives of three people in the last two weeks. Some 1,130 have been evacuated from their homes across the province.
