“There is no basis for a rumor circulating among university students that many girls were drowned in the flood water on the campus,” KAU Director of Public Relations Haytham Zakai said in statement on Thursday.
Zakai demanded that the students who reported the deaths bring evidence to support their claim if they wanted to avert punishment.
Al-Watan daily newspaper reported on Friday that the university spokesman issued a warning to anyone who spread such rumors.
KAU Director of Safety Abdul Qader Tankal said no one drowned during the flooding on campus. He demanded that authorities identify those spreading rumors, which he said were aimed at spreading fear among students and their families. He also said nobody was injured during an incident where a tree fell on one of the buildings on campus, partially collapsing it.
“Nobody was injured or killed when a tree fell on the building of the office of the undersecretary in the women’s section and partially collapsed it on that day,” he said.
He added further that no casualties occurred at the university centers in Faisaliyah, Rihab, Salama or the College of Teachers. The Baghdadiyah center was surrounded by water and the power supply to it was disconnected. Civil Defense evacuated the center with the help of helicopters. The estimated 1,000 students in the center were sent to the university hospital for routine checkups. No deaths or injuries were reported.
Abdul Rahman Al-Suhfi, spokesman of the Health Affairs Department in Jeddah confirmed the official university stand that no student was killed following the flood. He said the death toll in the Jeddah flood stood at 10.
