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Deadly monsoon rains lash Pakistan, around 200 people killed

Deadly monsoon rains lash Pakistan, around 200 people killed

New Indian Express13 hours ago
PESHAWAR: Heavy monsoon rains have triggered landslides and flash floods across a remote region of northern Pakistan, killing at least 194 people in the last 24 hours, disaster authorities said Friday.
Of those, 180 were reported in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the National Disaster Management Authority said.
Another nine people were killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and five more in the northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan, it said.
Seven more people were killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, regional disaster management authorities said.
"So far, across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more than 110 people have died due to cloudbursts, flash floods and roof collapses," PDMA spokesperson Anwar Shehzad told AFP. Another 60 people have been injured, he added.
He said Buner, Bajaur, Mansehra and Battagram have been declared disaster-hit districts.
In Bajaur, a tribal district abutting Afghanistan, a crowd amassed around an excavator trawling a mud-soaked hill, AFP photos showed.
Funeral prayers began in a paddock nearby, with people grieving in front of several bodies covered by blankets.
The meteorological department has issued a heavy rain alert for the northwest, urging people to avoid "unnecessary exposure to vulnerable areas".
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