Cyclone Gonu, which tore through Oman this week before veering towards Iran, killed at least 49 people and left another 27 missing in the Gulf sultanate, police said on Friday. "The death toll from Cyclone Gonu has risen to 49," a police spokesman told the official ONA news agency.
Oman was lashed by driving rain and heavy winds on Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the face of the storm. Television broadcast footage of overturned cars and flooded roads on the battered east coast, and a police spokesman said officers even had to use jet skis in some areas of the seaside capital.
As the sunshine returned to the normally dry sultanate on Thursday, residents ventured into the open to find trees and road signs uprooted and debris washed up along the shore.