The injured citizens were hospitalised, undersecretary of the health ministry in Aswan Ehab Hanafy told Al-Ahram on Saturday.

Heavy rainfall, thunder, dust storm, and snowfall in Aswan, where rain is rare, have raised a state of concern among residents amid fears of the possibility of floods.

Rain has reportedly flushed scorpions and snakes out of their hiding places, caused power cuts, and led many lighting columns and trees in the streets to fall.

Hospitals across the governorate have raised the state of utmost preparedness and doctors have been recalled from vacations, Hanafy said in separate remarks.

Authorities said that antivenom is available at hospitals and medical units in Aswan and extra amounts of the antivenom were provided to medical units in villages near mountains and the desert, Hanafy added.

For brief time between Friday and Saturday, Governor of Aswan Ashraf Attia ordered suspending vessel traffic in the River Nile from Aswan until Edfu, as well as Lake Nasser.

He also ordered temporary closure of high ways over lack of vision caused by the thunder storm and rainfall.

Attia urged citizens to stay at home and avoid places with trees and called for car drivers to reduce their movements to prevent traffic accidents and protect citizens’ lives.

Attia ordered opening roads and resuming vessel traffic in the Nile early on Saturday.

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) expects intermittent mild to moderate rainfall, possibly accompanied by thunder, to continue over parts of South Sinai and southern Egypt on Saturday.

This includes Upper Egypt’s Aswan, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, and Abu Simbel.

Aswan, El-Salloum, Matrouh and Abul Simbel are expected to also witness mild rainfall on Sunday.