ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Nineteen of 25 people killed by flash floods in Ethiopia’s eastern town of Jijiga this week were children, a regional official said on Saturday.

The region is prone to droughts and flooding. Last year, scores of people died after weeks of heavy rain.

“The force of the flash flood that hit Jijiga town on Thursday night swept away 200 houses, killing 25 people of whom 19 were children,” Nur Abdi Mohammed, spokesman for the Somali region, told Reuters.

Forty-five people were receiving hospital treatment, he said.

Nur said the flood occurred without warning after heavy rain around Chinaksen, 50 km (31 miles) north of Jijiga, and there had been no rain in the town itself on the day.

About 250 people whose houses were destroyed were receiving emergency assistance, he said.

(Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse, editing by Wangui Kanina)