The death toll in Pakistan by landslides and flash floods rose to at least 321, reports the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Saturday.
Hundreds of rescue workers are still searching for survivors in Buner, a mountainous district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where torrential rains and cloudbursts triggered massive flooding on Friday, said Mohammad Suhail, a spokesman for the emergency services, reports AP.
Dozens of homes were swept away. A state of emergency has been declared in Buner, with hospitals on high alert.
Apart from several homes being swept away in the devastation, communications in multiple areas have been cut off, reports Pakistan’s local news sources. Officials reported that mobile phone towers were damaged, leaving flood-hit regions isolated.
A helicopter of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government carrying relief supplies to Bajaur’s Salarzai area crashed due to bad weather over Mohmand district, killing all five on board, said Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur’s spokesperson, Faraz Mughal.
According to the provincial disaster management authority, at least 351 people have died in rain-related incidents this week across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan.
In recent days, floods in Indian-controlled Kashmir have taken dozens of lives, and driven hundreds from their homes there and in Pakistan.
Such cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions and Pakistan’s northern areas, and experts have said climate change is a contributing factor.