Scores of people have been killed in Pakistan after torrential rain caused flash floods that destroyed dozens of houses and left roads covered in water and debris.
Emergency responders struggled to deliver aid and carry out evacuations.
Officials said the death toll has risen to 146 in the flooding in several districts of the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in northern Pakistan.
Anwar Shahzad, a spokesman for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal early on August 15 that the rainfall in the previous 24 hours had caused the highest loss of life and property in Buner, Bajaur, Battagram, Mansehra, and Swat.
The number of deaths in Buner, where a number of houses were destroyed by the floods, accounted for more than half the total, according to Shahzad.
Bilal Faizi, spokesman for the Provincial Rescue and Relief Authority in Peshawar, told RFE/RL that three injured people had been rescued and 16 bodies recovered from the floodwaters in a village in Bajaur. Seven people are still missing from the village, he said.
Helicopter Crashes Delivering Emergency Supplies
The government declared a state of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from August 16. Officials say the death toll is expected to rise.
The government also said a helicopter carrying relief supplies to Bajaur crashed on August 15, killing all five people on board, including two pilots. The prime minister's office said in a statement the Mi-17 helicopter was heading to the flood-affected areas of Bajaur when it crashed in Mohmando.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister's Office said the helicopter crashed due to "bad weather."
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the relevant departments and authorities to accelerate the rescue operation in Battagram. Sharif expressed grief over the deaths and prayed for peace for those who lost their lives. He also conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families .
The state news agency said in a statement on August 15 that the authorities had ordered that all injured people receive medical aid.
The latest developments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province came as the month of Badru (known as Badu in Hindi) began on August 15.
Officials said an annual Hindu pilgrimage that began July 25 to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters had to be suspended. The floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims. More than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also damaged or washed away many homes and dozens of vehicles and motorbikes.
Floods in recent months have caused huge financial and personal losses to people in different parts of Pakistan.
Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said that from the last week of June to the end of July various incidents and floods during the rains killed about 300 people, including 140 children, and injured 700 people, mostly women and children.
Experts say that flooding has increased in recent years partly because of climate change, which is causing rain to occur suddenly in intense downpours over small areas instead of steady rain over a longer period of time and a wider geographical area.
Flooding and landslides also affected India-controlled Kashmir, where rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi on August 15. At least 60 people died in the flooding there, and scores of people were missing, officials said. Many of the missing are believed to have been swept away by the floodwaters.
