Flooding in northwestern Pakistan kills at least 16

Flooding in northwestern Pakistan kills at least 16

2011-08-25 19:39:19 GMT+7 (ICT)

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Rain-triggered flash floods killed at least 16 people in northwestern Pakistan on early Thursday morning, local authorities said.

Overnight rains in the Kohistan district of Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province caused flash floods in the Kundian valley, destroying scores of houses, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) spokesman Ahmed Kamal told the Express Tribune newspaper.

According to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Disaster Management Authority, local residents recovered 16 bodies on Thursday morning, but several others are still missing. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll at more than 30 with dozens still missing in flooded areas.

The affected area is a mountainous region which is difficult to access, but flooding and landslides have made the area almost completely inaccessible. District authorities deployed rescue teams and sought federal assistance with the use of helicopters, but government officials have not yet made any rescue operations official.

Earlier this month, torrential rains wrecked havoc in most parts of the southeastern province of Sindh, killing at least 18 people and leaving dozens more injured. Some areas saw the worst rainfall since at least 1936.

In late July 2010, above-average heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions killed approximately 2,000 people and affected around 20 million others. It was the country's worst flooding in modern history.

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