(Reuters)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 16 – 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.
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.
