The death toll from three days of flooding in Pakistan reached at least 267 yesterday, rescue and government officials said, as torrential rain bloated rivers, submerged villages and triggered landslides.
The rising toll from the monsoon rains underscores the poor infrastructure in impoverished Pakistan, where under-equipped rescue workers were struggling to reach people stranded in far-flung villages. The weather forecast was mixed, with some areas expected to see reduced rainfall and others much more.
Pakistani TV showed striking images of people clinging to fences and other stationary items as the water at times gushed over their heads.
The northwest appeared to be the hardest hit provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said, noting that it was the worst flooding in the region since 1929.
At least 245 people died in various parts of the province over the last three days, said Mujahid Khan of the Edhi Foundation, a privately run rescue service that operates morgues and ambulances across Pakistan.
In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, at least 22 people had been confirmed dead as of Thursday evening, the area’s Prime Minister, Sardar Attique Khan said.
The toll from the deluge is expected to rise because many people are still missing.
Poor weather this week may also have contributed to Wednesday’s Airblue plane crash that killed 152 people in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
In the Swat Valley, residents were forced to trudge through knee-deep water in some streets.
A newly constructed part of a dam in Charsadda district collapsed, while the UN said it had reports that 5,000 homes were underwater in that area. Hussain estimated 400,000 people were stranded in various northwest villages.
“A rescue operation using helicopters cannot be conducted due to the bad weather, while there are only 48 rescue boats available for rescue,” he said on Thursday.
Pakistan’s poorest residents are often the ones living in flood-prone areas because they cannot afford safer land.
Southwest Baluchistan province has also been hit hard by the recent rains. Last week, flash floods in that region killed at least 41 people and swept away thousands of homes. The UN statement on Thursday said 150,000 people were affected there.
The UN said Punjab province in Pakistan’s east was also hit by flooding and many crops remained submerged throughout the country. The UN said the humanitarian community was trying to put together a proper response, but the rains were making many roads impassable, complicating efforts to assess needs on the ground.
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