Another cyclone made landfall in war-ravaged Yemen's Socotra island Sunday, causing panic as a minister posted an "urgent appeal" to save residents from the second tropical storm in a week. At least two people were killed and dozens injured, a government source said.
Heavy winds, rain, and flash floods swept through Socotra as the storm, named Megh, hit the island, already badly battered by last week's cyclone Chapala, residents said.
Fisheries Minister Fahd Kavieen, who is from Socotra himself, urged the United Nations and neighbouring Oman to "urgently intervene with emergency teams to save residents" on the island "which is now facing a cyclone stronger than Chapala".
The Arabian Sea island is 350 kilometres (210 miles) off the Yemeni mainland.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) spokeswoman Clare Nullis said Friday that Megh is not as powerful as Chapala, which had killed eight people in south-east Yemen.
But Socotra resident and humanitarian activist Abdulrauf al-Juhaimali differed, telling AFP on Sunday that "this cyclone is stronger than Chapala".
The government source gave a provisional toll of two dead, a man and a woman when their homes collapsed, and said there were also "dozens of injured".
Many people who had returned to seafront homes already destroyed by Chapala fled again to government buildings on higher ground as heavy flooding hit once more, he said.
Tropical cyclones are extremely rare over the Arabian Peninsula, and two back-to-back was "an absolutely extraordinary event", said Nullis.