PESHAWAR: At least 31 people have been killed in rain-related incidents across Pakistan since Mar. 25, including six deaths in Karachi on Thursday, as heavy rains continued to lash parts of the country, officials and rescue workers said.
The PDMA has reported at least 25 people killed and 77 injured in rain-related incidents across KP since Mar. 25. It has urged authorities to speed up relief activities as a fresh spell of rain is expected to continue in the province till Apr. 4.
Meanwhile, torrential rains lashed Pakistan’s commercial hub Karachi on Thursday. Television channels showed the city’s main artery, Shahrah-e-Faisal, inundated with water. News channels showed footage of motorcyclists wading through waist-high water as local media outlets reported flooding on the city’s Nagan Chowrangi, Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karsaz and other areas.
“Five people, including a child, died due to electric shocks in Karachi during the rain on Thursday,” local charity Edhi Foundation said. “While a rickshaw driver was killed when a part of a roof fell on his vehicle.”
The charity organization said the electric shock incidents occurred in the city’s Surjani Town, PIB Colony, Ahsanabad, New Karachi and M.A. Jinnah Road areas.
In Hijrat Colony, Edhi Foundation said two people were injured when a roof collapsed on them, while in the Orangi Town area, two more were injured due to a wall collapse.
Karachi, a city of more than 20 million with dilapidated infrastructure, has often seen even moderate rains trigger flooding in parts of the city, threatening residents’ lives and causing hours-long power outages.
Last month, at least 21 people were killed in a day as severe rains lashed the southern port city, triggering wall and roof collapses.
FLOOD ALERT IN KP
Separately, the PDMA issued a flood alert for several areas of the northwestern KP province till Apr. 4.
Torrential rains in KP since Mar. 25 have not only killed 25 people also damaged over 80 houses, according to the PDMA.
These incidents occurred across several districts of the province, including Bannu, Abbottabad, Kohat, Peshawar, Nowshera, Bajaur, Lakki Marwat, Kurram, Hangu, Shangla, Buner, Malakand, Upper Dir, Battagram, North Waziristan and Tank, the PDMA said.
The authority warned that a fresh spell of rain is expected in many parts of the province till Apr. 4.
“There is a risk of high-level flooding in the Kabul River at Nowshera, while tributaries linked to the river may also overflow, directing relevant districts to remain on high alert,” the PDMA said in a statement.
“Flash flooding is also forecast in the Kohat Toi, Kurram River, and Gomal River.”
Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change and has in recent years experienced increasingly erratic weather patterns including extreme rainfall, floods and heatwaves that have exposed weak infrastructure and disaster preparedness gaps.
In 2022, catastrophic floods triggered by unprecedented monsoon rains killed more than 1,700 people and affected over 33 million nationwide.
Last year, heavy monsoon rains again caused widespread flooding across Pakistan, killing more than 900 people, with Punjab among the hardest-hit provinces where millions were affected and vast stretches of agricultural land were submerged, damaging crops and livelihoods.
