Deadly monsoon rain lashes Pakistan, killing more than 190 people
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Pakistan's meteorological department has issued a heavy rain alert for the north-west of the country.
PHOTO: AFP
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Heavy monsoon rain triggered landslides and flash floods across northern Pakistan, killing at least 194 people in the last 24 hours, disaster authorities said on Aug 15.
The majority of the deaths – 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.
“Across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa... (victims) have died due to cloudbursts, flash floods and roof collapses,” said Provincial Disaster Management Authority spokesman Anwar Shehzad, adding 60 people were injured. Buner, Bajaur, Mansehra and Battagram are now disaster-hit districts, he noted.
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 north-west, urging people to avoid “unnecessary exposure to vulnerable areas”.
In the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, a region divided with Pakistan, rescuers pulled bodies from mud and rubble on Aug 15 after a flood crashed through a Himalayan village, killing at least 60 people and washing away dozens more.
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 from June to September.
Scientists say that climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and more frequent.
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.
The torrential rain that has pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon, described as “unusual” by authorities, has killed more than 320 people, nearly half of them children. Most of the deaths were caused by collapsing houses, flash floods and electrocutions.
In July, Punjab – home to nearly half of Pakistan’s 255 million people – recorded 73 per cent more rainfall than the previous year and more deaths than in the entire previous monsoon. In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people. AFP
