Firefighters make progress against fast-moving blaze along highway north of Los Angeles
The King Fire, which broke out around 1 a.m., charred nearly a square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of tinder-dry brush in a lightly populated area about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of downtown LA.
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Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
Flash floods triggered by torrential rains kill at least 176 people in India and Pakistan
Published Aug 15, 2025 • 4 minute read Buildings damaged by Thursday's flash floods are seen in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Photo by Channi Anand / AP CHOSITI, India (AP) — Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 176 people and left scores others missing in India and Pakistan over the past 24 hours, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighbouring countries. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India's Himalayan regions and Pakistan's northern areas, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions. Experts say cloudbursts have increased in recent years partly because of climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions. Dozens missing in remote Himalayan village In India-controlled Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi on Friday after flash floods a day earlier left at least 60 people dead and at least 80 missing, officials said. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Officials halted rescue operations overnight but rescued at least 300 people Thursday after a powerful cloudburst triggered floods and landslides. Officials said many missing people were believed to have been washed away. Harvinder Singh, a local resident, joined the rescue efforts immediately after the disaster and helped retrieving 33 bodies from under mud, he said. At least 50 seriously injured people were treated in local hospitals, many of them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris. Disaster management official Mohammed Irshad said the number of missing people could increase. Weather officials forecast more heavy rains and floods in the area. Chositi, in Kashmir's Kishtwar district, is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an ongoing annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,500 feet.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Officials said the pilgrimage, which began July 25 and was scheduled to end on Sept. 5, was suspended. The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims, as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. More than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also damaged or washed away many of the homes clustered together in the foothills, officials said. Sneha, who gave only one name, said her husband and a daughter were swept away as floodwater gushed down the mountain. The two were having meals at the community kitchen while she and her son were nearby. The family had come for pilgrimage, she said. Photos and videos on social media show extensive damage with household goods strewn next to damaged vehicles and homes in the village. Authorities made makeshift bridges Friday to help stranded pilgrims cross a muddy water channel and used dozens of earthmovers to shift boulders, uprooted trees and electricity poles and other debris. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Kishtwar district is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects, which experts have long warned pose a threat to the region's fragile ecosystem. Hundreds of tourists trapped by floods in Pakistan In northern and northwestern Pakistan, flash floods killed at least 116 people while rescuers evacuated 1,300 stranded tourists from a mountainous district hit by landslides. At least 35 people were reported missing in these areas, according to local officials. Flash floods triggered by heavy rains and cloudbursts early Friday killed at least 56 people in Buner district in Pakistan's northwestern district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a government administrator said. Dozens were injured as the deluge destroyed homes in villages in Buner. Rescuers backed by boats and helicopters worked to reach stranded residents. Dozens of villages were still missing and the death toll is likely to rise, Kashif Qayyum said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Authorities declared a state of emergency Friday in flood-hit villages in Buner, where ambulances have transported 56 bodies to local hospitals, according to a government statement. More than 415 people, mostly women and children, have died in rain-related incidents across the country since June 26. Deaths were reported from different parts of Pakistan on Thursday. Bilal Faizi, a provincial emergency service spokesman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said rescuers worked for hours to save 1,300 tourists after they were trapped by flash flooding and landslides in the Siran Valley in Mansehra district on Thursday. The Gilgit-Baltistan region has been hit by multiple floods since July, triggering landslides along the Karakoram Highway, a key trade and travel route linking Pakistan and China that is used by tourists to travel to the scenic north. The region is home to scenic glaciers that provide 75% of Pakistan's stored water supply. Pakistan's disaster management agency has issued fresh alerts for glacial lake outburst flooding in the north, warning travelers to avoid affected areas. A study released this week by World Weather Attribution, a network of international scientists, found rainfall in Pakistan from June 24 to July 23 was 10% to 15% heavier because of global warming. In 2022, the country's worst monsoon season on record killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage. Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA World Toronto & GTA
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Spain, Portugal, and Greece battle wildfires as heatwave is expected to last for days
MADRID (AP) — Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece continued to battle wildfires Friday on a public holiday in all three countries as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes. Spain was fighting 14 major fires. Temperatures were expected to climb over the weekend. 'Today will once again be a very tough day, with an extreme risk of new fires,' Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X. The national weather agency AEMET warned of extreme fire risk in most of the country, including where the largest blazes were burning in the north and west. A heatwave which brought temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on several days this month was expected to last through Monday. Fires in the Galicia region forced the closure of several highways. The high speed rail line connecting it to Spain's capital, Madrid, remained suspended. The fires in Spain this year have burned 158,000 hectares or 610 square miles, according to the European Union's European Forest Fire Information System. That is an area roughly as big as metropolitan London. In both Spain and Portugal it was the Feast of the Assumption, a major Catholic holiday usually marked by family gatherings and religious processions. In Portugal, nearly 4,000 firefighters were battling seven major fires. Authorities extended the state of alert until Sunday, amid high temperatures expected to last through the weekend. A wildfire in Greece burned out of control for a fourth day on the island of Chios, prompting several more overnight evacuations. Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. Two water-dropping planes and two helicopters were operating in the north of the island in the eastern Aegean Sea, where local authorities said a lull in high winds was helping firefighters early Friday. Following a series of large fires in western Greece earlier this week, the Fire Service was on alert Friday outside Athens and nearby areas in the south of the country where adverse weather conditions elevated the fire risk. The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians expressed solidarity on Friday with the victims of wildfires in southern Europe during prayers for the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, an important religious holiday for Orthodox Christians. ___ AP writer Derek Gatopoulos contributed from Athens.
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Flash floods triggered by torrential rains kill at least 176 people in India and Pakistan
CHOSITI, India (AP) — Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 176 people and left scores others missing in India and Pakistan over the past 24 hours, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring countries. Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India's Himalayan regions and Pakistan's northern areas, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions.
