Pakistan: Torrential rains kill more than 344 people in 48 hours during "unusually" intense monsoon

Torrential rains have killed 344 people in Pakistan in 48 hours. A total of 657 have died since the start of the monsoon season.

This is an "unusually" intense monsoon. Pakistan's Disaster Management Authority reported more than 344 deaths in forty-eight hours, it said Saturday, August 16. Over the course of two days, torrential rains have hit various districts of the mountainous northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. This region has the highest death toll: 307.

"More than half of the victims died due to the poor quality of the structures," Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah of the National Disaster Management Authority told AFP. France 24 reports that most of the victims were swept away by flash floods, or died when their houses collapsed, electrocuted, or struck by lightning.

"It looks like the whole mountain has collapsed."

More than 2,000 rescuers are working to find bodies buried or any survivors buried under the rubble, Bilal Ahmed Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial rescue service, told AFP. "Heavy rains, landslides, and blocked roads are hampering ambulance access, and rescuers are having to travel on foot," significantly slowing their work.

"This morning when I woke up, the land our family had cultivated for generations – and the small field where we had played cricket for years – was gone," Muhammad Khan, a resident of Buner district, where 91 people have died, told AFP. "It looks like the whole mountain has collapsed, the area is covered in mud and huge boulders," he added.

On Friday, a helicopter was dispatched to aid rescuers, but it crashed, raising the death toll to five. Eleven people died in the Pakistani region of Kashmir due to the monsoon. On the Indian side of the region, 60 people were killed and 80 are missing.

The monsoon season began in late June. In total, over the past month, 657 people have died in Pakistan, including around 100 children, and 888 others have been injured. Pakistan is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Authorities expect the rains to intensify in the next two weeks.