HEAVY rains flooded Greater Cairo on Tuesday, bringing traffic to a halt for several hours. Many districts east of Cairo remained almost impossible to reach due to accumulated rainwater on the streets. The cabinet decided to suspend schools and universities on Wednesday following reports of unstable weather conditions.

Videos circulated on social media showed rainwater several inches deep blocking traffic in Heliopolis tunnels and flooding the halls of Cairo Airport.

EgyptAir decided to delay the departure of some of its flights on Tuesday evening after passengers were stuck for hours in traffic, unable to reach the airport. Due to traffic congestion, people resorted to using the underground but that caused huge crowds to surge into some metro stations.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 October, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.