Three women and child die in northern Iraq floods

Three women and a child died in floods that hit the north of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Sunday, a provincial governor and military officers told AFP.

Severe rainstorms in the area surrounding the town of Mergasur, near the Iraq-Turkey border, caused the Upper Zaab river to overflow, delivering massive damage to roads and bridges and leaving several paths blocked off because of landslides.

"A child and a woman were killed," Arbil Governor Nawzat Hadi said.

He said the two had been in their home on the outskirts of Mergasur, 75 kilometres (45 miles) north of the regional capital Arbil, when water entered and dragged them away, eventually drowning them.

"We have not yet evaluated the material losses, which are too great," Hadi said. "Tomorrow, we are going to send a committee to evaluate these losses houses, schools, electricity infrastructure, roads and bridges."

Hadi declared a state of emergency for the area.

A senior commander in the Kurdish peshmerga guerrilla force told AFP that the storm had also flooded the Soran valley near Mergasur.

Meanwhile, peshmerga Major Dhikri Sufi said two women were dragged away by water in the town of Piran, around 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Turkish border.

"They went with the current and drowned," he said.

Sufi said roads and bridges in the area had been badly damaged, and landslides had blocked off several paths.