Flash floods have killed more than 191 people in eastern Ethiopia, after a heavy downpour caused a river to overflow, police said Sunday.
"The death toll from the flood caused by the overflow in Dire Dawa reached 191 by 8:30 pm (1730 GMT)," regional Dire Dawa Police Commissioner Getachew Asres told AFP.
"Thirty nine of the deceased were children under the age of seven," he added, speaking to AFP by phone from the ravaged township, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa.
Police said several thousands of people were displaced after the Dire Dawa River, which cuts through the town, broke its banks and swept through homesteads.
