Pakistan floods: Army rushed in as death toll hits 344
Rescue operations are underway in northwestern Pakistan after flash floods triggered by days of torrential rain have claimed at least 344 lives, with more than 150 people still missing. The hardest-hit area is the mountainous district of Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the death toll reached 277 on Monday after rescuers recovered three additional bodies.
The army has deployed engineers and heavy machinery to clear rubble and access remote areas, while rescue teams continue to search for residents swept away by the floods.
Villagers have criticized officials for failing to provide timely evacuation warnings, traditionally broadcast via mosque loudspeakers.
Government authorities, however, maintain that an early warning system was in place, but the intensity and suddenness of the downpour left little time for residents to respond.
A senior politician has controversially blamed local residents for the high death toll, suggesting that homes should not have been built in flood-prone areas.
Earlier reports stated that more than 150 people are missing in northwest Pakistan, the head of the provincial disaster authority said on Sunday, after flash floods that have killed at least 344 people in the country.
Thousands of rescuers were battling rain and knee-deep mud, digging homes out from under massive boulders in a desperate search for survivors.
“In Buner, at least 150 people are still missing. They could be trapped under the rubble of their homes or swept away by floodwaters,”
Asfandyar Khattak, head of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority, told AFP.
“Separately, in Shangla district, dozens of people are also reported missing,” he added.
The ongoing rain was making rescue operations extremely difficult, Khattak said.
“There is no electricity or mobile signal in Buner, as power lines and mobile towers were damaged in the flash floods,” he added.
In hardest-hit Buner district, at least 208 people were killed and “10 to 12 entire villages” partially buried, a provincial rescue spokesman told AFP.
“The operation to rescue people trapped under debris is ongoing,” said Bilal Ahmed Faizi of the province’s rescue agency.
He said around 2,000 rescue workers were engaged in recovering bodies from the debris and carrying out relief operations across nine districts, where rain was still hampering efforts.
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