Severe storms and flooding have killed four people in Iran and left around 190 villages cut off, as a powerful weather system swept across the country's western provinces over the weekend.

According to Iran International, citing Iranian emergency and crisis-management officials, the severe weather has caused four deaths and 11 injuries since 6 November. Around 1,600 people have received direct emergency assistance.

Two of the deaths were caused by lightning strikes in Khuzestan Province, in the south-west of the country. Flooding was also reported in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and Bushehr, while heavy hail and runoff affected Kermanshah.

The worst disruption was in Lorestan Province, where flooding and damaged access routes cut off roughly 190 villages. Roads were left underwater or blocked, and emergency teams worked to reach communities isolated by the rising water.

Iran's Meteorological Organization issued red-level warnings for several provinces over 7 and 8 November, including Khuzestan, Lorestan, Kurdistan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. Maritime red alerts were also reported for the Caspian Sea provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran for Monday, 9 November.

Before the worst of the weather arrived, Iran placed 18,000 emergency response teams on alert and deployed 26,000 pieces of engineering equipment and specialised machinery, according to the Tasnim news agency. Heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides were affecting several provinces across the country.

The storms are part of the same weather system that brought deadly flooding to northern Iraq, heavy rain to Syria and severe conditions across the wider Middle East in the first week of November. In Iraq, flash floods in Erbil killed seven people, while in Syria heavy rain left at least five people dead, including four children who drowned in Raqqa and Deir Az Zor governorates. The shared system underlines how a single slow-moving disturbance can overwhelm drainage and hillside communities across several countries at once.

Iran's warning system placed the western provinces on its highest alert level because the rain was falling on ground already saturated by earlier downpours. The Meteorological Organization's red warnings covered a broad sweep of the west and south-west, and the Caspian Sea provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran were under maritime red alerts for Monday, 9 November, with rough conditions expected for shipping and fishing vessels.

Emergency officials have cautioned that the picture is still developing. Saturated ground, swollen waterways and debris-covered roads are expected to keep disrupting transport in the affected provinces, and casualty figures and road conditions may change as assessments continue and cut-off villages are reached.

Residents in affected areas have been urged to follow official weather warnings and avoid travelling through flooded roads, where water levels can rise quickly and without warning.