Heavy monsoon rains and flash floods have killed 110 people in Pakistan and 86 people in India, officials said Saturday, as forecasters warned of more rain in the coming days and troops raced to evacuate people from deluged areas.
The annual monsoon season has struck hard across the region, leaving people to wade through rushing water in towns and villages across Pakistan and in Indian-controlled areas of Kashmir, where authorities say they are seeing some of the worst flooding in decades.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority chief Muhammad Saeed Aleem briefed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about the damage from heavy rains that started in Wednesday.
Sharif called the death and destruction “a great loss.”Aleem reported 110 deaths in the eastern province of Punjab, the Pakistan-controlled Himalayan region of Kashmir and the adjoining Gilgit-Baltistan region in the north.
He said 148 people have been injured and 650 houses completely destroyed.
Precipitation of 668 millimeters (mm) was recorded in Kashmir’s Palandri area in the last 48 hours, while the capital Islamabad received 316 mm in the same period.
Geo TV showed water flooding streets and roads in various towns and cities, and several damaged houses.
Troops were deployed to help rescue people trapped by the floods. Geo reported that one soldier died in Sialkot area of Punjab during a rescue operation.