At least 25 people have been killed, including six women from the same family, after seasonal monsoon rains caused flash floods that wreaked havoc in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Wednesday, prompting authorities to declare an emergency in Quetta district.
Director-General of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Naseer Ahmad Nasar said all the deaths were due to rain-related incidents in various parts of Balochistan.
“We have also had many incidents of people being injured in the heavy rains,” he said.
There are fears that the death toll could go up as several people are still reportedly missing due to flash flooding in remote areas of the Balochistan province, according to the PDMA.
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Nasar said that more than 300 mud-walled houses were damaged in Quetta district.
The dead included six women from the same family in Quetta. They were killed when the wall of their makeshift house collapsed due to rain and strong winds, officials said.
According to family members, two women succumbed to injuries as there were no arrangements to get them hospitalised, the Dawn newspaper report said.
Three women and four children were also killed when houses collapsed on the outskirts of Quetta.
The Balochistan government has declared an emergency in Quetta district. Several districts of Balochistan province have received heavy downpour accompanied by strong winds over the past 24 hours.
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The bodies of two girls were also recovered in Quetta as they drowned in a deep pond in Bhosa Mandi area on Tuesday night, officials said.
Two women were killed in Dasht area in Mastung district when a wall of their house collapsed, they said.
In Kech districts, three children drowned in a seasonal stream in the Mand area close to the Pakistan-Iran border.
Five coal miners were also swept away in a seasonal nullah.
However, the locals saved two of them, while three others drowned in the gushing waters.
Heavy rains have hit parts of Nasirabad, Jaffarabad, Sibi, Ziarat, Harnai, Barkhan, Loralai, Lasbela, Kohlu, Dera Bugti, Awaran, Noshki and Chagai districts where the local administration has stepped in to provide relief measures.
Floods triggered by seasonal monsoon rains wreak havoc in Pakistan every year, killing hundreds.
