Rescuers, supported by the army and local volunteers, continued to dig through piles of rubble on Monday in several districts of northwest Pakistan, where floods have swept away entire villages, bridges and other infrastructure, killing more than 350 people in the past four days.
The latest deaths from floods that hit the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday brought the total death toll to 670 since the first monsoon rains hit the South Asian country on June 26.
Addressing a news conference in the capital Islamabad, Lieutenant General Inam Haider, head of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said about 1,000 people had been injured in rain- and flood-related accidents across the country since June 26.
Inam said authorities were working tirelessly to clear roads and restore power distribution in flooded districts.
Heavy rains continued to batter Peshawar, the provincial capital, and neighboring Swabi and Nowshehra districts, as a fresh monsoon wave loomed over the flooded regions of Buner, Swat, Shangla and Mansehra.
Heavy rains claimed the lives of two young girls in Harnai district of southwestern Balochistan province on Monday.
Authorities fear the death toll could rise, with Faraz Mughal, a spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, telling reporters that at least 200 people were still missing.
Most of the missing were reported in the worst-hit Buner district, where 220 deaths had been confirmed as of Friday.
“Things are beyond terrifying here. Nothing is left except piles of rubble and huge rocks carried by floodwaters,” Fazal Maabood, an official at Al-Khidmat Foundation, one of the largest relief and rescue agencies in Pakistan, told Anadolu Agency.
Along with the NDMA and Al-Khidmat Foundation, several humanitarian organizations have sent aid to the affected areas.
