Heaviest monsoon rains in decades kill over 70 in Pakistan

Heavy monsoon rains killed over 70 people in Pakistan, as the military was called in to help with evacuations, officials said Friday.
The populous central province of Punjab and parts of the disputed Kashmir region near the Indian border have been worst hit by three days of rains and mudslides, dpa quoted rescue official Rizwan Naseer as saying.
Eastern Pakistani cities received their heaviest rains in 30 years, meteorological department official Muhammad Hanif said.
Over 60 people died when the roofs of houses collapsed in four cities across Punjab, police official Rizwan Ahmed said from provincial capital Lahore.
Mudslides swept away several houses in Kashmir, killing 11 people and injuring scores of others, Naseer said.
A military spokesman said on Thursday three soldiers died when their vehicle was washed away by a mudslide in Kashmir.
Three rivers flowing into Pakistan from India were still in a state of "exceptionally high floods," said Ahmed Kamal, spokesman for National Disaster Management Authority in the capital Islamabad.
Troops have been mobilized across Pakistan to evacuate people from areas located on the banks of the rivers, a military spokesman said.