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Landslides and flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in northern Pakistan have killed at least 243 people in the past 24 hours, including 157 in the flood-hit Buner district of northwest Pakistan on Friday.
Dozens of people are still missing and rescue operations are underway, Muhammad Suhail told The Associated Press. He said 78 bodies had been recovered from different parts of the district by Friday afternoon and 79 more were later pulled from the rubble of collapsed houses and flooded villages.
“The death toll could rise as we are still searching for dozens of missing people,” Suhail said. The floods destroyed homes in villages in Buner, where authorities declared a state of emergency on Friday. Ambulances have taken more than 100 bodies to hospitals, according to a government statement. Hundreds of houses have been submerged in the floods. The situation is so bad that many families are stranded on the roofs of their homes. While evacuation operations are underway, the Meteorological Department has warned that heavy rains could continue until August 21.
Officials said many of the victims died in flash floods or when their houses collapsed. Reports of deaths are coming from different parts of Pakistan. Rescue workers struggled for hours to rescue 1,300 tourists trapped in flash floods and landslides in the Siran Valley of Mansehra district on Thursday, said Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the emergency services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Gilgit-Baltistan region has been hit by floods several times since July, causing landslides on the Karakoram Highway. The Karakoram Highway is a major trade and travel route connecting Pakistan and China, used by tourists. The region is home to beautiful glaciers that provide 75% of Pakistan’s water supply.
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