BUNER, Pakistan: Fresh torrential rains in northern Pakistan killed at least 20 people on Monday, local officials said, as the region is ravaged by an unusually intense monsoon season that has left more than 300 people dead in recent days.
Torrential rains across the country’s north have caused flooding and landslides that have swept away entire villages, leaving many residents trapped in the rubble and around 200 still missing.
“A cloudburst in Swabi completely destroyed several houses, killing more than 20 people,” an official in the district, located in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP on Monday.
Several villages were wiped out by the huge amount of rain falling in a short period of time, a second local official said, confirming the death toll.
Since the first heavy rains on Thursday most of the deaths — more than 340 — were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the provincial disaster agency, which warned of new flash floods over the next few days.
The latest heavy rains halted the ongoing search efforts for the missing, with volunteers and rescue workers racing to find possible survivors and retrieve bodies.
“This morning fresh rains forced a halt to relief operations,” said Nisar Ahmad, 31, a volunteer in worst-hit Buner district, adding that 12 villages had been destroyed and 219 bodies recovered.
“Dozens of bodies are still buried under the mud and rocks, which can only be recovered with heavy machinery. However the makeshift tracks built to access the area have once again been destroyed by the new rains.
