PESHAWAR: Climate change-induced flash floods and cloud-bursts have killed more than 337 people in northwestern parts of Pakistan, said by officials of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), while dozens remain missing after the area was hit by flash floods in recent days.
Mohammad Suhail, a spokesman for the emergency service, said 54 bodies were found after hours-long efforts in Buner, a mountainous district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where torrential rains and cloudbursts triggered massive flooding.
Suhail said that several villagers remained missing.
Search efforts focused on areas where homes were flattened by torrents of water that swept down from the mountains, carrying massive boulders that smashed into houses like explosions, he maintained.
Authorities have warned of more deluges and possible landslides between now and Tuesday, urging local administrations to remain on alert. Higher-than-normal monsoon rains have lashed the country since June 26 and killed more than 600 people.
Reporting from Mingora disrtict of Swat stated that the search for survivors is ongoing.
In Qadar Nagar, a remote village in northern Pakistan, friends and relatives were putting the final touches to the decoration for a family wedding when a torrent of mud and water swept through the house, reports further revealed.
Twenty-eight family members who had gathered for the wedding are now dead, a close relative said.
“Authorities say it will take weeks to clear the streets, and only then can the repair work begin. The infrastructure damage is extensive, with warnings of more storms to come,” reports said.
Meanwhile, angry residents in Buner, Pakistan, accused officials of failing to warn them to evacuate after torrential rain and cloudbursts triggered deadly flooding and landslides. There was no warning broadcast from mosque loudspeakers, a traditional method in remote areas.
Mohammad Iqbal, a schoolteacher in Pir Baba village, told the Associated Press news agency that the lack of a timely warning system caused casualties and forced many to flee their homes at the last moment.
Read more: Cloud-bursts Causing Chaos In India, Pakistan; Over 300 die om KP and GB
