TEHRAN: Flooding in Iran caused by heavy rainfall has left 21 people dead and one missing, an emergency services spokesman said Wednesday, even as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.

Mojtaba Khaledi told Iran’s ISNA news agency that 22 people had also been injured, with most of the casualties in southern or central provinces.

He said 11 people had died in Fars province, three each in Hormozgan and Qom, two in Sistan and Baluchistan province, and one each in Bushehr and Khuzestan.

Khaledi said one person was still missing in Hormozgan on the Gulf coast.

Flooding last week killed 12 people, and Khaledi warned of more heavy rain to come. Iran is battling one of the world’s deadliest coronavirus outbreaks with 3,036 deaths and 47,593 infections.

In March and April last year, heavy rainfall and flooding killed at least 76 people in Iran. At the time, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated 10 million people were affected, describing the floods as “the largest disaster to hit Iran in more than 15 years.”