Cyclone Gonu hit Iran

Cyclone Gonu, the worst tropical storm to hit the Gulf in decades, made landfall in Iran on Wednesday afternoon, packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. The storm hit the east coast of Oman earlier in the day, with winds snapping trees and blowing over street signs, while heavy rains flooded some roads.

By evening, Iran was starting to feel the full brunt of the weather in the southern coastal provinces of Hormorzgan and Sistan Baluchestan, which lie only some 100 kilometres (60 miles) across the Gulf from northern Oman. Television showed rising seawater advancing some 500 metres (yards) inland, flooding coastal roads in the Sohar region 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Muscat.

Gonu, whose name in the language of the Maldives means a bag made of palm fronds, initially packed winds of 260 kilometres (160 miles) an hour and was expected to be the strongest to hit the Arabian peninsula since 1977.