Not less than 194 individuals have died within the final 24 hours in heavy monsoon floods and landslides in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Many of the deaths, 180, have been recorded by catastrophe authorities within the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in north-west Pakistan. Not less than 30 houses have been destroyed and a rescue helicopter crashed throughout operations, killing its 5 crew.
9 extra individuals have been killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, whereas 5 died within the northern Gilgit-Baltistan area, it stated.
Authorities forecasters stated heavy rainfall was anticipated till 21 August within the northwest of the nation, the place a number of areas have been declared catastrophe zones.
In Buner, one survivor informed AFP the floods arrived like “doomsday”.
“I heard a loud noise as if the mountain was sliding. I rushed outdoors and noticed the complete space shaking, prefer it was the tip of the world,” stated Azizullah.
“The bottom was trembling because of the power of the water, and it felt like demise was staring me within the face.”
The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gadapur, stated that the M-17 helicopter crashed attributable to unhealthy climate whereas flying to Bajaur, a area bordering Afghanistan.
In Bajaur, a crowd amassed round an excavator trawling a mud-soaked hill, AFP pictures confirmed. Funeral prayers started in a paddock close by, with individuals grieving in entrance of a number of our bodies lined by blankets.
Within the Indian-administered a part of Kashmir, rescuers pulled our bodies from mud and rubble on Friday after a flood crashed through a Himalayan village, killing a minimum of 60 individuals and washing away dozens extra.
Monsoon rains between June and September ship about three-quarters of South Asia’s annual rainfall. Landslides and flooding are frequent and than 300 individuals have died on this yr’s season.
In July, Punjab, residence to just about half of Pakistan’s 255 million individuals, recorded 73% extra rainfall than the earlier yr and extra deaths than in the complete earlier monsoon.
Scientists say that local weather change has made climate occasions extra excessive and extra frequent.