Heavy Rains, Floods Kill 16 More In Pakistan

Flooding caused by fresh rain spells across Pakistan killed at least 16 people over the past 24 hours, besides washing away houses, roads, and bridges, and leaving thousands of people stranded, local media and officials said on Monday.

Torrential rains along with flashfloods that hit southwestern, northeast, and southern parts of the country during the last 24 hours submerged large swathes of land and highways in several districts, mainly in otherwise arid Balochistan province.

At least seven people were killed by floods in the remote Moosakhel district of Balochistan on Monday, with as many people missing, Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a top district official, told reporters.

Several small towns and villages in the district have been cut off from the rest of the province due to flooding as rescue teams are struggling to reach the stranded people, he added.

At least two dams in the region burst their banks, washing away a key connecting bridge, and over 100 houses.

Rescue workers fished out four bodies from Hub River in Lasbella, while another two were killed in Dera Ghazi Khan in rain-related accidents.

Footage aired on local TV channels showed muddy brown rainwaters gushing through streets and highways in Balochistan's eastern districts of Jhal Magsi, Kohlu, Naseerabad, Sohbatpur, and Lasbela, and Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh districts of northeastern Punjab province.

Rising water levels in River Indus inundated dozens of villages in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur, forcing people to run for safety.

Another footage showed dozens of people leaving their inundated villages for safer places on tractor-trolleys.

Monsoon rains have long been a bane for Pakistan like other South Asian nations but climate change and global warming have increased their frequency and ferocity in recent years.

Nearly 600 people, of them 200 in Balochistan alone, have lost their lives while over 1,000 have been injured due to rains and floods since June 14, according to the National Disaster Management Authority, a state-run agency that coordinates between different relief and rescue organizations.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast more rains across the country until Aug. 18 due to a new rain system that entered the country from neighboring India, which too has been badly hit by torrential downpours and flooding. -