By Gul Yousefzai
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Intense floods killed dozens of people and left hundreds homeless in Pakistan, officials said on Saturday, as heavy monsoon rains battered the country.
In the southern province of Balochistan, 57 people, including women and children, were killed after being swept away in flood waters, according to Ziaullah Langove, the disaster and home affairs advisor to the province’s chief minister, adding that eight dams had burst due to the heavy rains.
Hundreds more were left homeless after their homes collapsed in the rain and flooding, he said, adding monsoon rains were continuing.
In north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province two people, including a six year-old, died and four were injured when their house collapsed due to rain, according to a district official statement.
Heavy rains have lashed the country in recent days, leaving large swathes of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, inundated with water.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, 24 people have been killed by floods in the east and south of the country, a disaster management agency spokesman said on Friday.
Pakistan’s Navy said it was joining efforts to evacuate citizens and deliver rations and fresh water in Balochistan.
In 2010, the worst floods in memory affected 20 million people in Pakistan, with damage to infrastructure running into billions of dollars and huge swathes of crops destroyed as one fifth of the country was inundated.
(Reporting by Gul Yousefzai in Quetta; Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar and Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul; Editing by David Holmes)
