JEDDAH: Jeddah residents are attempting to falsely claim compensation in the wake of the Nov. 25 floods. Others have allegedly fabricated stories exaggerating the death toll and the numbers of those missing following the disaster.
After Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ordered SR1 million compensation for a victim’s family, there was a rise in claims from residents who said they had also lost relatives in the floods. A large number of the claims turned out to be false.
One father told the Civil Defense his son had been missing since the floods. It later emerged his son had been in police custody at the time of his claim. Another man said his wife and three sons had gone missing when in fact they were alive and well.
Residents from badly hit areas made up other far-fetched stories, including one about a woman who apparently survived under wreckage for three days drinking petrol. Another unverified story tells of a foreigner who threw two of his children into a sewage well at his house so he could claim SR2 million from the Ministry of Finance. When he was asked about the time of their death, he gave a date eight days before the floods.
Residents in affected areas also spread a story about a Saudi man who had allegedly killed one of his sons to obtain compensation money. His ploy was believed to be uncovered when his wife accused him of murdering their son.
Some rumors estimated the number of missing people at over 6,000, a figure denied by spokesman of the Civil Defense Brig. Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Qarni. He told Arab News that such stories were not true.
He said they had discovered 26 unidentified bodies and added the number of those missing was only 39. The spokesman warned about the consequences of spreading false reports and added authorities had their own means to authenticate any claim.
