Cyclone Mekunu pummels Yemeni island, 17 missing

SOCOTRA, May 24 (AFP): Seventeen people were missing and hundreds of others evacuated from their homes Thursday after Cyclone Mekunu hit the Yemeni island of Socotra, causing severe flooding and damage, officials said.

Neighbouring Oman is preparing for landfall on Friday, with national weather experts expecting Mekunu to intensify to a category two cyclone from category one, after it hit Socotra on Wednesday night.

The missing people had been in two boats that sunk and three vehicles swept away by floods, said Ramzy Mahrous, governor of Socotra, an island paradise 350 kilometres (220 miles) off Yemen in the Arabian Sea.

Yemen's internationally recognised central government early Thursday declared Socotra a "disaster province" and Mahrous said it could not handle relief efforts on its own, with the number of missing expected to rise.