By Swati Gupta, Faseeh Mangi, Muhammad Sajjad and Riaz Khan
Flash floods triggered by heavy rains have killed more than 360 people in Pakistan and India, and led to severe devastation across the South Asian region.
At least 307 people have died and 23 have been injured in Pakistan since Friday, according to the latest updates from the country’s National Disaster Management Authority.
The village of Pir Baba in Buner district in Pakistan’s north-west was one of the hardest-hit locations.Credit: AP
Meanwhile, about 60 people were killed and more than 60 are missing in India’s northernmost region of Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told reporters.
Local police and other agencies are conducting search and rescue operations in the Kishtwar region of India, about 200 kilometres from Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistani authorities have warned that landslides are likely to increase further in the country’s northern regions in the event of more rain.
It advised tourists to avoid travelling to the area for the next five or six days.
More than 2000 people have been rescued from the floods so far, according to posts by the provincial government of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, which has been the hardest-hit.
Hundreds of rescue workers are still searching for survivors in Buner district, one of several areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where torrential rains and cloudbursts caused massive flooding, emergency services spokesman Mohammad Suhail said.
First responders have been trying to recover bodies from the badly hit villages of Pir Baba and Malik Pura in Buner, where most of the fatalities were, said deputy commissioner Kashif Qayyum.
An eyewitness who escaped the deluge described seeing floodwaters carrying hundreds of boulders and “tonnes of rocks” crashing down. Another survivor, Mohammad Khan, said the floods “came so fast that many could not leave their homes”.
Most victims died before reaching hospital, said Mohammad Tariq, a doctor in Buner. Many among the dead were children and men, while women were away in the hills collecting firewood and grazing cattle.
Residents remove mud to recover a rickshaw from debris after flash flooding in Mingora in Pakistan’s north-west.Credit: AP
Local police officer Imtiaz Khan described boulder-laden floodwaters flattening homes within minutes.
“A stream near Pir Baba swelled without warning. At first, we thought it was a normal flash flood, but when tonnes of rocks came crashing down with the water, 60 to 70 houses were swept away in moments,” Khan told the Associated Press.
“Our police station was washed away too, and if we hadn’t climbed to higher ground, we would not have survived.”
A helicopter on a relief mission crashed in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing all five crew members, including the two pilots, the provincial chief minister said.
India’s weather department has predicted above-average rainfall during the June-September monsoon season.
Cloudbursts, floods and landslides have caused significant loss of life and property in recent months, with hilly areas being the worst affected. Last week, flash floods swept away an entire village in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
At least 477 have been killed in Pakistan since June due to flash floods.
The country’s disaster management authority has estimated this year’s monsoon to be 65 per cent more intense than last year, and warned that future rainy seasons are likely to be more severe due to climate change.
Bloomberg, Reuters, AP
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