PESHAWAR: More than 150 people are missing in northwest Pakistan after devastating flash floods that have already claimed at least 344 lives across the country, officials said on Sunday.
Rescue teams are working day and night in heavy rain and thick mud, trying to pull survivors and bodies from homes crushed under huge boulders.
“In Buner district alone, over 150 people are still missing. They may be buried under rubble or swept away by the floods,” said Asfandyar Khattak, head of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). He added that dozens more are missing in Shangla district.
Continuous rainfall has made rescue operations very difficult. “There is no electricity or mobile network in Buner because power lines and towers were destroyed in the floods,” Khattak explained.
Buner is the worst-hit area, where at least 208 people have died and several villages have been partly buried, a provincial rescue spokesperson said.
“Rescue work is still going on to find people trapped under the debris,” said Bilal Ahmed Faizi, spokesperson for the rescue agency.
Around 2,000 workers are busy in nine districts, searching for bodies and providing relief to survivors, but ongoing rains continue to slow down their efforts.
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