Nearly 200 people have died in north-west Pakistan due to torrential rains over the past 24 hours, with severe weather also causing the crash of a rescue helicopter, local officials reported on August 15. Cloudbursts and flash floods have been widespread in the region.
Cloud bursts, flash floods, lightning strikes and building collapses amid heavy rain caused fatalities in the hills and mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, they said, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The National Disaster Management Authority, a government body, put the death toll at 194 late on Aug 15.
Worst hit was the Buner area, where floods and heavy rain caused 100 deaths, the provincial chief secretary, Mr Shahab Ali Shah, told Reuters.
A helicopter carrying relief supplies to those hit by flooding in Bajaur, close to the Afghan border, crashed due to the bad weather, killing the five crew members.
In the district of Swat, more than 2,000 people were moved to safer ground, after rivers and streams swelled, rescue officials said.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif chaired an emergency meeting to review the flood situation caused by the recent rains, a statement from his office said.
