Pakistan batters rains, over 200 dead, several injured in PoK in over past 36 hours
Pakistan rains: Heavy rainfall has wreaked havoc in several parts of Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir over the past 36 hours killing at 214 people injuring dozens others.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was the worst hit as the region has reported most number of deaths. Incessant rains have triggered flash floods wiping off several building and blocking major roads.
Karakoram Highway and Baltistan Highway in Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) are also reportedly blocked due to landslides. Heavy rain in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is likely to continue intermittently until August 21, the authorities have warned.
According to Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), at least 198 people, including 14 women and 12 children, were killed and several remained missing as flash floods wreaked havoc across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last 24 hours.
Which district witnessed the maximum deaths?
Buner district witnessed the highest number of deaths at 92, according to the PDMA. The other affected districts include Mansehra, Bajaur, Batagram, Lower Dir and Shangla. 'A total of Rs 500 million has been released for the districts most affected by floods as per the instructions issued by Chief Minister Amin Ali Gandapur,' the PDMA report said.
Where is the maximum damage?
The floods damaged more than a dozen houses, several vehicles, schools, and health units, while blocking major arteries, including the Karakoram Highway and Baltistan Highway, at several points. The northeastern Neelum Valley also faced major disruptions, where tourists were shifted to safety. The floods also washed away two connecting bridges over Lawat Nullah, and the swollen Jagran Nullah tore away a bridge in Kundal Shahi resulting in 600 tourists to be stranded. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern regions have witnessed torrential rains wreaking havoc in areas with poor drainage systems or densely populated areas.
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Pakistan floods claim over 300 lives in 48 hours as monsoon rains wreak havoc: 10 points
Sudden floods triggered by torrential rains have killed more than 300 people across Pakistan, authorities said Saturday, as entire villages in the mountainous north-west were devastated. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported at least 321 deaths in the last 48 hours, with 307 of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Nine fatalities were recorded in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and five in Gilgit-Baltistan. Weeks of relentless monsoon rains, massive landslides and raging floodwaters have torn through the region since early June, sweeping away entire neighbourhoods and leaving homes in ruins. Rescue workers said more than ten villages were reduced to rubble in Buner district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Many residents remain missing as washed-out roads and landslides blocked access. More than 30 homes in the village were swept away. The district situated north of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, was the worst-hit, with 184 confirmed killed so far, Reuters reported. Rescue workers and local residents search for bodies of victims of Friday's flash flooding through the rubble of damaged houses at Qadir Nagar village near Pir Baba, Buner district, in Pakistan's northwest, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad) 'Over 120 bodies have been recovered from this area alone so far. Just a few days ago, there was a vibrant, living community here. Now, there's nothing but heaps of large rocks and debris,' Bilal Faizi, spokesperson for Rescue 122, told CNN. In Salarzai, a subdivision of Bajaur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, one of the worst-hit areas, locals described the flooding as apocalyptic. 'When the rain intensified, it wasn't long before I felt as if an earthquake had struck — the whole ground was shaking,' said Farhad Ali, a student, CNN reported. Rescuers and local residents use heavy machinery to recover bodies during a rescue operation at the site of a massive cloudburst that led to flash flooding, in Salarzai, in Bajaur district, in northwestern Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Qyass Khan) 'In the pouring rain, my entire family ran outside, and we saw a torrent of mud and massive boulders rushing through the stream near our house. It felt like doomsday had arrived, with scenes straight out of the end of the world.' AFP reported villagers gathered for funeral prayers in a paddock, weeping over bodies covered in blankets as excavators dug through mud-soaked hills. Around 2,000 rescue workers have been deployed across nine districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, but officials say relief operations remain extremely difficult. The provincial government has designated the hardest-hit mountainous districts — Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra and Battagram — as disaster zones. 'Heavy rainfall, landslides in several areas and washed-out roads are causing significant challenges in delivering aid, particularly in transporting heavy machinery and ambulances,' Bilal Ahmed Faizi, spokesperson for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's rescue agency, told AFP. Rescue workers transport the body of a victim of Friday's flash flooding after recovering it from the rubble of a damaged house at Qadir Nagar village near Pir Baba, Buner district, in Pakistan's northwest, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad) 'Due to road closures in most areas, rescue workers are travelling on foot to conduct operations in remote regions. They are trying to evacuate survivors, but very few people are relocating due to the deaths of their relatives or loved ones being trapped in the debris.' Separately, five crew members died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when a helicopter crashed during relief efforts, a provincial official confirmed. The Pakistan Meteorological Department has issued a heavy rain alert for the north-west, warning of intensified rainfall from Sunday with the risk of flash floods and urban flooding. Social media videos showed huge torrents of brown water tearing through villages. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired an emergency meeting in Islamabad on Friday to review rescue operations after what officials described as one of the deadliest cloudbursts in recent years. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said civilian and military teams were leading rescue and relief efforts, while the prime minister had convened an emergency meeting to review the crisis. Provincial Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah told Reuters that local officials had been deployed to the worst-hit areas to oversee operations and assess damage. He said medical camps were being set up for survivors, alongside arrangements to provide food to families who had lost their homes. The monsoon season in South Asia provides three-quarters of annual rainfall, but this year's rains began earlier and are expected to last longer, said Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah of the NDMA. 'The next 15 days… the intensity of the monsoon will further exacerbate,' he told AFP. A boy sits in front of shops damaged by Friday's flash flooding on the outskirts of Pir Baba, Buner district, in Pakistan's northwest, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad) The NDMA says more than 600 people have been killed this monsoon season. In Punjab province, rainfall in July was 73 per cent higher than last year, with more deaths already than the entire 2024 monsoon. Pakistan remains one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries. Floods in 2022 submerged a third of the country and killed around 1,700 people. Pakistan's chief meteorologist Zaheer Babar said the country has witnessed a rise in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. He told Reuters that heavy rains in the mountains often triggered flash floods downstream, catching people in lower-lying areas off guard. A firefighting department vehicle submerged in a floodwater following flash flooding due to heavy rains in the neighbourhood of Mingora, the main town of Swat Valley, northwestern Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo) While climate change was a major driver, Babar said the impact had been worsened by homes built alongside rivers and streams, and by waterways constricted due to construction and garbage dumping, which made it harder for rainfall to disperse. Heavy rains have also battered neighbouring India and Nepal over the past week, causing deadly floods and landslides. In Kashmir, at least 60 people were killed and more than 200 reported missing in the pilgrimage town of Chashoti on Friday. In Nepal, 41 people lost their lives and 121 others were injured, according to the country's disaster management authority, cited by Reuters.
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
More than 300 people dead in Pakistan after heavy rains, floods
More than 300 people are dead in northwest Pakistan after two days of heavy rains and flash floods, local officials said on Saturday. The deluge hit the remote mountainous northern part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, with cloud bursts, flash floods, lightning strikes and landslides in the deadliest downpour of this year's monsoon season. By Saturday, 307 were confirmed dead, with more people missing, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. Parts of neighbouring India and Nepal have also been hit hard by heavy rains, flooding and other rain-related incidents over the past week. In Bajaur district, close to the Afghan border, Saeedullah was asleep in the yard of his home on Thursday night when he was woken by loud thunder. Live Events He rushed to his house where his family were sleeping to find the roof had collapsed. Helped by neighbours, he dug through the debris and found the bodies of his wife and five children. He said he suspected the house was hit by lightning, with parts of it on fire before the rain came down. He said he buried his family on Friday, with the help of the community. "There is destruction everywhere, piles of rubble," Saeedullah, 42, said. Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson for the country's official 1122 rescue service, said that he expected the death toll to climb as more bodies are recovered from under the debris of homes. Buner district, north of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, was the worst-hit, with 184 confirmed killed so far. Faizi said there was a cloud burst in Buner early on Friday creating a torrent of water that swept down to the villages below. "There was no time for anyone to react," Faizi said. Zahid Hussain, 62, a resident of Beshonrai village, in Buner, said that more than 60 people had lost their lives in his village and more than 20 were missing. He said he told his family to flee when he noticed water rising quickly in a stream near his house that swept towards his front door. One of his nephews got trapped and broke his leg as the waters rose. Hussain rescued him and took him to a hospital in Buner. "The floodwater washed away our house in front of our eyes," Hussain told Reuters from the hospital. "Within minutes, we were made homeless." More than 30 homes in the village were swept away. Ishaq Dar, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, said that civilian and military teams were carrying out rescue and relief operations, while the prime minister had chaired an emergency meeting. Provincial Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah said that local officials had been dispatched to the flooded areas to supervise relief operations and assess the damage. He said medical camps were being set up for the flood victims, along with arrangements to provide food for families who lost their homes. On Friday, a rescue helicopter crashed, due to bad weather, killing the five crew members. Zaheer Babar, Pakistan's chief meteorologist, said the country has seen an increase in the frequency and destructiveness of extreme weather events. He said heavy rainfall in the mountains meant people in lower-lying areas were not aware of the strength of the downpour until it reached them as a flash flood. Climate change was one factor, he said, but it was made worse by homes being built next to rivers and streams, while some waterways were constricted by construction activity and garbage dumping, making it harder for the rainfall to disperse.
NDTV
4 hours ago
- NDTV
At Least 320 Killed In Pakistan Due To Monsoon In Last 48 Hours
Rescuers were struggling to retrieve bodies from debris after flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains across northern Pakistan killed at least 321 people in the past 48 hours, authorities said on Saturday. The majority of deaths, 307, were reported in mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said. Most were killed in flash floods and collapsing houses, with the dead including 15 women and 13 children. At least 23 others were injured. One resident told AFP it felt like "the end of the world" was coming, as the ground shook with the force of the water. The provincial rescue agency told AFP that around 2,000 rescue workers were engaged in recovering bodies from the debris and carrying out relief operations in nine affected districts where rain was still hampering efforts. "Heavy rainfall, landslides in several areas, and washed-out roads are causing significant challenges in delivering aid, particularly in transporting heavy machinery and ambulances," said Bilal Ahmed Faizi, spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's rescue agency. "Due to road closures in most areas, rescue workers are travelling on foot to conduct operations in remote regions," he told AFP. "They are trying to evacuate survivors, but very few people are relocating due to the deaths of their relatives or loved ones being trapped in the debris." The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra and Battagram as disaster-hit areas. The meteorological department has issued a heavy rain alert for Pakistan's northwest for the next few hours, urging people to take "precautionary measures". Nine more people were killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, while five died in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, the national disaster authority said. Another five people, including two pilots, were killed when a local government helicopter crashed due to bad weather during a relief mission on Friday. 'Reeling From Profound Trauma' The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but it also brings destruction. Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September. Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah, a representative of the national disaster agency, told AFP that this year's monsoon season began earlier than usual and was expected to end later. "The next 15 days... the intensity of the monsoon will further exacerbate," he said. In Buner district, where there have been dozens of deaths and injuries, resident Azizullah said he "thought it was doomsday". "I heard a loud noise as if the mountain was sliding. I rushed outside and saw the entire area shaking, like it was the end of the world," he told AFP. "The ground was trembling due to the force of the water, and it felt like death was staring me in the face." In Bajaur, a tribal district abutting Afghanistan, a crowd gathered around an excavator digging through a mud-soaked hill. On Friday, funeral prayers began in a paddock nearby, with people grieving in front of several bodies covered by blankets. In the picturesque district of Swat, an AFP photographer saw roads submerged in muddy water, electricity poles grounded, and vehicles half-buried in mud. The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon, described as "unusual" by authorities, have killed more than 600 people. In July, Punjab, home to nearly half of Pakistan's 255 million people, recorded 73 percent more rainfall than the previous year and more deaths than in the entire previous monsoon. Pakistan is one of the world's most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, and its population is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency. Monsoon floods in 2022 submerged a third of the country and killed around 1,700 people. Another villager in Buner told AFP residents kept on searching through the rubble overnight. "The entire area is reeling from profound trauma," said 32-year-old schoolteacher Saifullah Khan. "We still have no clear idea who in this small village is alive and who is dead," he added. "I help retrieve the bodies of the children I taught, I keep wondering what kind of trial nature has imposed on these kids." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
