MUSCAT   -   Flood­ing in Oman has killed at least 16 people, many of them schoolchildren, authorities said following the discovery of the bodies of a child and three adults on Monday. The Gulf sultanate’s official news agen­cy initially reported on Sun­day that nine schoolchildren and three other adults had “lost their lives after their ve­hicles got swept away in gush­ing wadi waters”. Five individu­als were also reported missing in the floods that struck the northeast of the country. The Oman News Agency report­ed on Monday the bodies of a child and three further individ­uals and had also been recov­ered. Violent thunderstorms, heavy rain and strong winds beginning on Sunday have bat­tered the country, causing flash floods in several regions in the north and east of Oman. The sultanate’s Council of Minis­ters said in a statement it was “filled with grief” and “extends its sincere condolences and sympathies to the families and relatives of school students who recently died in the Gover­norate of A’Sharqiyah”.