Islamabad, SANA-The death toll from heavy monsoon rains that have triggered flash floods across northern Pakistan has risen to at least 320 people in the past 48 hours, the country’s disaster authority said Saturday.
The majority of deaths, 307, were reported in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said.
Nine more people were killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, while five died in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, it said.
Most were killed in flash floods and collapsing houses, while 21 others were injured.
The meteorological department has issued a heavy rain alert for Pakistan’s northwest for the next few hours, urging people to take “precautionary measures”.
Hundreds of rescue workers are still searching for survivors in Buner, a mountainous district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where torrential rains and cloudbursts triggered massive flooding on Friday, said Mohammad Suhail, a spokesman for the emergency services. Dozens of homes were swept away.
According to local authorities, flash floods killed at least 633 people this week in Northern Pakistan.
Such cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions and Pakistan’s northern areas, and experts have said climate change is a contributing factor.
Khadega/Mazen Eyon
