More than 300 people have died in northwest Pakistan after two days of heavy rains and flash floods, local officials said.
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 yesterday, 321 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.
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.
“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.
l Hurricane Erin, the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season, has become a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane, the US National Hurricane Center said yesterday.
The storm is currently 170km north of Anguilla, with maximum sustained winds near 255kmph. The NHC said that Erin is expected to strengthen over the southwestern Atlantic through the weekend and into next week.
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