Arab News said civil defence workers had recovered five bodies from three valleys in the mountainous Jizan province bordering Yemen.

Thirteen elderly people were also rescued from the rising water and taken to hospital, the daily said. Many people were living in tents, it added.

Rescue helicopters began distributing food and clothing in the Tihama area on Thursday.

In Jizan city, some 400 elementary schoolgirls had been trapped by rainwater and sewage and many other schools in the area closed.

"The situation is very bad and we are afraid that disease might invade the area," local resident Othman Iskandar told the paper. The municipality has started pumping out water in the city.

Hadi Al-Qahtani, from Al-Sabkha village, said floodwaters rose one metre (more than three feet).

"Most families are living in tents after their homes were destroyed," he said from the remote outpost. "The only school in the area needs to be rebuilt after flood destroyed some of the walls.

"The only road that connects the outside world with our village is washed out. The only solution is to build new bridges," he said.

TERRA.WIRE