At least 18 children and teachers were killed and 22 others wounded as a school bus was swept away by flash floods in the Zara Maeen area on the banks of the Dead Sea in Jordan.

The majority of the victims are believed to be students who were heading to a picnic at hot springs as part of a school trip. The witnesses said that the floodwaters swept their bus into a valley as it was approaching a resort area.

A major search operation has been launched to locate 37 students and seven adults, who were missing following the incident.

Israeli Defense Force has also sent its troops to assist in the search on the request of the Jordanian authorities.

#BREAKING: Israel IDF is helping Jordanian forces search for a group of school children from Jordan whose bus was swept away in flooding by the Dead Sea pic.twitter.com/AQYkHWbTxB — Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) October 25, 2018

“A major rescue operation entailing scores of people from different state agencies as well as several rescue helicopters and boats, marine divers and swimmers are at the site now to rescue trapped people and search for missing ones,” a Civil Defence Department spokesperson said.

#عاجل الدفاع المدني: 7 وفيات و11 اصابة والبحث عن مفقودين اخرين في البحر الميت حتى الآن... ورئيس الوزراء ووزير الداخلية ومدير الدفاع المدني يتابعون ميدانيا جهود البحث والانقاذ... وطائرات سلاح الجو تشارك في عمليات تمشيط المنطقة #بترا#الاردن#البحر_الميت#الامطارpic.twitter.com/wSEIKd8XuI — Jordan News Agency (@Petranews) October 25, 2018

An unnamed education ministry official told the Jordan Times that the people on the bus were from one of the private schools. He also expressed surprise that the trip wasn’t canceled due to bad weather conditions.

Breaking: The #IDF is currently assisting Jordan, at the request of #Jordan, in rescuing a bus of children swept away in the floods on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. Search and rescue units deployed. Praying for the safety of all!צילום: עמיר אלוני pic.twitter.com/4Rz22jYrIw — StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) October 25, 2018

Jordan has been hit by heavy rain in recent days, which led to flooding of the streets in the capital Amman.

rain everywhere: cute, romantic & cozyrain in Jordan: pic.twitter.com/kQeJSacFaz — sunrise (@shurouuqq) October 25, 2018

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