AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s state news agency says four people have been killed and hundreds of tourists visiting the kingdom’s ancient city of Petra have been moved to higher ground after heavy rains caused flash floods in several locations.

The Petra agency quoted government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat as saying two dozen people were injured and dozens more evacuated as homes were flooded. Elsewhere, rising water levels forced the closure of a desert highway.

She says several people are missing and that searches are continuing.

Petra says two women and two girls were killed in two separate incidents.

Friday’s floods came two weeks after 21 people, including middle school students, were killed in flash floods near the Dead Sea. Jordan’s tourism and education ministers resigned after the incident. </s> PETRA, Jordan (AP) - Official media say the death toll from flash floods unleashed by heavy rains in Jordan has risen to 11, and that searches for missing people continue.

Saturday's reports came a day after floods struck in several areas of Jordan, including Petra, an ancient trading hub carved into rose-colored rock. Hundreds of Petra visitors ran for higher ground Friday as water surged through a narrow canyon leading to the Treasury, Petra's main attraction.

Government spokeswoman Jumana Ghuneimat and Civil Defense officials say the death toll rose early Saturday, after another body was found in the Madaba region south of the capital of Amman. They said searches for the missing are continuing.

Friday's floods came two weeks after flash floods near the Dead Sea killed 21 people, most of them children.

FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2017, file photo, tourists brave a rare rainstorm in plastic ponchos to peer at the Treasury, Jordan's most famous archaeological monument leftover from the Nabatean civilization in the kingdom's Petra archaeological park. Flash floods caused by heavy rain across Jordan killed people Friday, Nov. 9, 2018 and forced hundreds of tourists to seek higher ground in the kingdom's ancient city of Petra, the government spokeswoman said. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil, File) </s> PETRA, Jordan (AP) — Official media say the death toll from flash floods unleashed by heavy rains in Jordan has risen to 11, and that searches for missing people continue.

Saturday's reports came a day after floods struck in several areas of Jordan, including Petra, an ancient trading hub carved into rose-colored rock. Hundreds of Petra visitors ran for higher ground Friday as water surged through a narrow canyon leading to the Treasury, Petra's main attraction.

Government spokeswoman Jumana Ghuneimat and Civil Defense officials say the death toll rose early Saturday, after another body was found in the Madaba region south of the capital of Amman. They said searches for the missing are continuing.

Friday's floods came two weeks after flash floods near the Dead Sea killed 21 people, most of them children. </s> AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan's state news agency says four people have been killed and hundreds of tourists visiting the kingdom's ancient city of Petra have been moved to higher ground after heavy rains caused flash floods in several locations. </s> The death toll from flash floods caused by heavy rain in central Jordan has risen to 11, official media said on Saturday.

The media said searches for missing people were continuing after the floods struck in several areas of the country, including the popular tourist destination of Petra.

Some 3,500 tourists had to be evacuated from Petra on Friday, with water surging through parts of the famed ancient trading center. No casualties in the city were reported.

Government spokeswoman Jumana Ghuneimat on Friday called on residents living in low-lying regions to evacuate their homes, according to the kingdom's official Petra news agency.

She warned that heavy rains were likely to continue.

Earlier, Ghuneimat said those who died came from the town of Madaba, which lies southwest of the capital, Amman.

The deluge came two weeks after flash floods triggered by torrential rain swept away a bus carrying children and their teachers from a private school in Amman, killing 21 people, mostly pupils. The victims had been on a trip to hot springs near the Dead Sea.

Two government ministers resigned in connection with the disaster.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Flash floods caused by heavy rain across Jordan killed nine people Friday and forced hundreds of tourists to seek higher ground in the kingdom's ancient city of Petra, the government spokeswoman said.

About two dozen people were hurt and dozens more evacuated from their homes in several locations in the kingdom, as flood waters rose rapidly.

Amateur video posted online showed a powerful torrent rushing through the steep, narrow canyon through which visitors reach the Treasury, the main attraction in Petra, an ancient trading hub carved from rose-colored rock.

The video showed several hundred visitors crowded on a patch of higher ground near the Treasury as local guides helped one woman through surging water toward safety.

"We made it," she shouted as she rejoined her group.

Government spokeswoman Jumana Ghuneimat said two dozen people were injured and dozens more evacuated as homes were flooded in several locations. Elsewhere, rising water levels forced the closure of a desert highway.

Friday's floods came just two weeks after 21 people, many of them middle school students, were killed in a flash flood near the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea. The education and tourism ministers resigned after the incident.

Torrential rains and flooding began Friday afternoon. In Wadi Musa, the town next to Petra in southern Jordan, water surged from nearby mountains into a dry riverbed running through the community.

Ahmed Shamaseen, 29, owner of the Petra Harmony guest house, told The Associated Press he heard a thunderous sound, ran outside and saw water carrying tree stumps, rocks and debris rushing through the riverbed toward ancient Petra. He said several shops near the Petra visitors' center were badly damaged by flooding.

Shamaseen said a couple from the Netherlands and their one-year-old child were touring Petra when the flooding began. He says the couple told him after their return to the guesthouse that they had to climb to higher ground to evade the water.

Ghuneimat said more than 3,600 tourists visited Petra on Friday, and that efforts were continuing to evacuate them.

She said nine people were killed Friday in other areas of Jordan.

In one incident in a village in the Madaba region, south of the capital of Amman, flooding swept away a vehicle carrying members of one family, Civil Defense officials said. An 11-year-old girl was killed, another girl was seriously injured and divers were searching for three other members of the family. One of the divers involved in rescue efforts was killed.

In the Dabaa area, also south of Amman, two women and a girl were killed in the floods which also forced the closure of a desert highway. A large number of cars were stuck, Ghuneimat said.

Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City and Omar Akour in Amman contributed to this report. </s> 14 killed as Jordan flash flood sweeps away students on trip

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Flash floods swept away a group of teachers and students who were on a school trip near the Dead Sea on Thursday, killing 14 and wounding 22, a website linked to Jordan's military said.

The students from a private school and their adult chaperones were touring near the Dead Sea when heavy rains led to flash floods in the area, Health Minister Ghazi al-Zaben and official media said.

Al-Zaben initially put the death toll at 10, but the Hala Akhbar website, linked to the military, later reported that 14 members of the group were killed and 22 injured.

The Israeli military said it dispatched an elite search and rescue team to the area at the request of the Jordanian government.

Jordan's state news agency Petra said Prime Minister Omar Razzaz was at the scene to oversee the rescue mission. </s> Flash floods killed 11 people in Jordan and forced nearly 4,000 tourists to flee the famed ancient desert city of Petra, emergency services said on Saturday.

Search teams were scouring valleys near the historic hill town of Madaba for two young girls still missing after Friday's floods, civil defence spokesman Iyad Amru told state television in an update.

Five people have already been confirmed dead in the area southwest of the capital Amman after torrential rains swept the south of the kingdom.

To the east, three people were killed near Dabaa on the Desert Highway, one of Jordan's three main north-south arteries, while one was killed near Maan in the south.

Government spokeswoman Jumana Ghneimat said the highway was cut in both directions.

The Jordanian army deployed helicopters and all-terrain vehicles to help with the search and rescue operation.

A rescuer was also among the dead, the civil defence spokesman said.

State television said the waters had reached as high as four metres (13 feet) in parts of the red-rock ravine city of Petra and the adjacent Wadi Musa desert.

It broadcast footage of tourists sheltering on high ground on both sides of the access road to Jordan's biggest attraction.

The government spokeswoman said 3,762 tourists were evacuated.

Designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1985, Petra draws hundreds of thousands of tourists a year to its rock-hewn treasury, temples and mausoleums.

Its buildings have been used as sets for several Hollywood blockbusters including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The latest deaths come after October 25 flash floods in the Dead Sea region of the kingdom killed 21 people, most of them children on a school trip.

Jordan's education and tourism ministers both resigned last week over failings in the government's response to those floods.

The education ministry ordered schools closed nationwide on Saturday amid warnings of more heavy rains. </s> Flash floods killed seven people in Jordan on Friday, the government and civil defence said, adding that five more people were missing.

The bad weather also saw over 3,700 tourists evacuated by the authorities from the world famous historic site of Petra.

The deaths come more than two weeks after October 25 floods in the Dead Sea region of Jordan cost 21 lives, most of them children on a school trip.

The latest downpours hit the south of the desert kingdom claiming seven lives, government spokeswoman Jumana Ghneimat said.

A civil defence source told AFP that five other people were missing.

"Heavy rainfall in the Dabaa region (south of Amman) prompted the closure of the desert highway (leading to the south of the country) in both directions after the area was flooded," said Ghneimat.

She said two women and a child were among those killed in the floods.

The civil defence source said another child died in the Madaba area, also south of Amman, when the car the child was in was caught up in waters.

"Rescuers are searching for five people who are missing in that area," the source said.

Jordanian army troops deployed helicopters and armoured vehicles to help search for the missing and assist residents threatened by the floods, state television reported.

Authorities evacuated 3,762 tourists from the ancient city of Petra, an archeological site and key tourist destination in southern Jordan, due to the bad weather, Ghneimat said.

State television said that flood water in the red-rock city of Petra and in some areas of the nearby Wadi Mussa desert had risen to between three and four metres high and flooded the main roads.

It broadcast footage showing people standing on both sides of the main road in Petra and along the desert highway trying to stay clear of the floods.

Jordan's ministry of education also ordered schools closed across the country on Sunday.

Ghneimat urged residents of the stricken areas and low-lying regions to evacuate their homes, saying that heavy rains were expected to continue to lash Jordan Friday night and Saturday.

Jordan's education and tourism ministers resigned last week after the deadly school-bus accident in the flood-hit Dead Sea region. </s> The death toll from flash floods in Jordan's Dead Sea area has risen to at least 21, according to the country's civil defence, as search and rescue operations continued for a second day.

The victims were mostly schoolchildren from the capital, Amman, who were visiting the area on a field trip, Petra news agency reported on Friday.

They were swept away when a heavy downpour on Thursday sent flash floods towards the area where the students and other picnickers were sitting.

At least 35 people were injured and a nearby bridge also collapsed, according to local media reports.

Jordanian civil defence said in a statement that some people are still unaccounted for, raising fears that the death toll could rise.

Doctor Mahmoud Zureigat, general manager of al-Basheer public hospital in Amman where the victims were transported, said the dead arrived with severe injuries to their bodies.

"Though the final cause of death was drowning, all of the victims however suffered from broken bones and other injuries because they were hit by huge boulders as they were being swept away by the flash flood," he told Al Jazeera.

Zureigat said almost all of the dead have been claimed by their families.

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz was on the scene to oversee the rescue mission on Friday. He said he would form a fact-finding committee to investigate the circumstances of the deaths, according to Petra.

For his part, King Abdullah II cancelled a trip to Bahrain to follow the rescue operations, ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast and announced a three-day mourning period.

The king expressed his "anger and "great sadness" in a Twitter post on Friday and promised to hold those responsible to account.

"My sorrow and pain are severe and great, and I am only as angry with all those who failed to take action that could have prevented this painful incident," he said.

"I console Jordan and myself for losing members of my large family. The pain and suffering of every family is my own pain and suffering as well. We belong to God and to him we return."

'Accountability'

On the day of the school's field trip, Jordan's national weather and government agencies had issued severe weather warnings.

Jordanian schools must submit detailed plans of their intended field trips and obtain the Ministry of Education's approval before going on a trip.

Education Minister Azmi Mahaftha said the private school - Amman-based Victoria College - was responsible, not his ministry, for "providing wrong information on their field trip application", according to local media reports.

Meanwhile, several people from the area where the floods hit told Al Jazeera that they had repeatedly complained about the bridge that collapsed to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. They said that no action had been nor had the bridge been inspected.

Hasan al-Ghwairi, a local resident, said the bridge and the roads in the area were in poor condition.

"Despite our protests and asking for repairs, the government never paid attention to us," he said.

Al Jazeera contacted the Jordanian government for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.

"We will investigate this tragic incident and hold those responsible to account and bring them to justice if found responsible," Ghazi al-Hawamleh, a member of parliament from the southern city of Tafelieh, told Al Jazeera.

He added that there must be accountability for anyone found to be responsible for the bridge's collapse, which could include the construction contractor and the minister of public works, who would have authorised the construction.

Jordanians took to social media to express condolences to the families of the victims while criticising the government for poor infrastructure in the country and a lack of accountability.

Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports
Flash floods caused by heavy rain in Petra, Jordan, kill 11 people while 24 others are injured.