Flash floods caused by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 33 people in northern Pakistan, the majority from a village near the border with Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.
The rains began late Saturday and were concentrated mainly in the northwestern province of Khybher Pakthunkwa, which has been badly affected by flooding in recent years that some scientists have linked to climate change.
The worst hit district was Chitral, on the country’s northwest border, where flood waters swept away a mosque, dozens of houses and army post in the remote village of Ursoon, district mayor Maghfirat
Shah told AFP.Thirty-one people were killed in the village, and at least eight of the dead are thought to be soldiers.
A statement issued by the provincial disaster management authority said 82 houses were affected by the waters, and efforts were underway to provide food and relief items to the villagers.
Another senior local official, Osama Waraich, said that the bodies of eight of the victims from Ursoon had been found on the Afghan side of the border.
Separately, two Chinese engineers were killed and five Pakistani workers injured when the heavy rains caused the roof of a construction site to collapse at Tarbela Dam, spokesman for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority Latifur Rehman said.
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