ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – At least two children drowned on Thursday in the countryside of Syria’s Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces after being swept away by flash floods triggered by heavy rainfall that began the previous night, state media reported.

One of the children died after drowning in flash floods in the town of Hammar al-Ali, western Deir ez-Zor, Syrian state television Al-Ekhbariya said, citing the province’s media directorate.

Another child drowned in a valley near the village of Hunayda, in the Raqqa countryside, due to heavy floods, the Raqqa Media Directorate said.

Meanwhile, civil defense teams ramped up search operations in Raqqa near the Salmani bridge to locate an individual who went missing during the floods, state-run SANA later reported that the bridge collapsed, cutting off the Raqqa-Aleppo Road.

A Syrian helicopter was also used to airlift two individuals stranded atop a car on the Deir ez-Zor-Palmyra road, with 15 people having been rescued and 375 families evacuated from their homes across the country by emergency services as of Thursday, per state media.

Earlier on Thursday, Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Raed al-Saleh said that floods have affected the provinces of Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Hasaka, Hama, Homs, and Latakia, asserting that relevant teams have been mobilized to respond to the situation.

According to Ekhbariya, Saleh said that preliminary reports indicate one fatality resulting from a traffic accident in western Raqqa.

Floods also swamped dozens of displacement camps in Hasaka, including the Sari Kani and Washokani camps, with the Kurdish Red Crescent and local Kurdish forces, including the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) and the Hasaka Brigade, providing assistance to the residents and helping evacuate families, according to Rojava (northeast Syria)-based ANHA.

The Sari Kani Displaced Persons Committee called for the process of IDPs returning to their areas to be accelerated as “difficult humanitarian conditions persist and their suffering in displacement camps continues to worsen,” ANHA reported.