10 dead after violent floods, landslides in Pakistan
Policemen look on as workers remove a fallen railway tower after a storm in Pakistan today. (AFP pic)
MUZAFFARABAD : At least 10 people were killed and 43 injured as strong winds and thunderstorms triggered flash floods and destroyed homes in central and northern parts of Pakistan, officials said today.
Four women and a man died in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and three in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the state disaster management authority said, while other officials said two died in Punjab.
'One person is still missing,' Haroon Rasheed, a senior government official in Pakistan administered Kashmir told AFP, adding that 12 houses and a mosque were destroyed in one village.
Storms on Saturday killed at least 14 people and injured over 100 more across the country, which is grappling with increasingly frequent extreme weather events blamed on climate change.
Stormy weather is expected to continue in northern and central parts of the country until Saturday, according to the national disaster management authority.
Soaring temperatures in April and May are becoming more common in Pakistan, which usually sees summer begin in early June.
Temperatures reached near-record levels in April – as high as 46.5°C in parts of Punjab.
Schools in Punjab and southwestern Balochistan provinces have closed early for summer vacations because of the heat.
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