Devastating flash floods claim 256 lives in KP, GB, AJK
168 including 5 killed in rescue helicopter crash in KP
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Devastating flash floods have killed at least 256 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, with 189 deaths reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone on Friday. Several people remain missing as the floods wreaked havoc across the province, according to data from the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).
The province-wide deaths included 163 men, 14 women and 12 children, with Buner witnessing the highest number of deaths, 91, according to the PDMA. The data added that 45 homes, three schools and eight other structures were destroyed amid the deluge, with 26 homes being destroyed in Swat alone.
Earlier, the KP government dispatched a helicopter with supplies to Bajaur district, but said that it lost contact with the aircraft. It later confirmed in a statement that the helicopter had crashed and two pilots and three crew were killed.
“As a result of this tragic accident, five passengers, including two pilots, were martyred,” the statement read, quoting KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.
“The provincial government has called for a day of mourning tomorrow and flags will be flown at half mast,” the statement added. “Rescue teams have been dispatched to the crash site and the martyrs will be buried with full honours.”
In an earlier statement, the CM was quoted as saying that contact with the helicopter had been lost due to “bad weather”.
Other most-impacted districts included Bajaur — located in the same Malakand Division as Buner — where eight children were among 21 killed and eight were injured due to flash floods, the PDMA report said.
Incidents related to lightning strikes took the lives of 15 men in Battagram, while 14 deaths and two injuries were reported in Mansehra due to floods.
In Swat, flash floods and thunder strikes claimed 11 lives, the PDMA report added. A roof collapse left five men dead and three wounded in Lower Dir, while two men were killed and as many were injured in a similar incident in Shangla.
The KP government said a provincial govt MI-17 rescue helicopter had reached Buner to evacuate people to safe areas.
At least 325 people, including 142 children, have died and 743 others have been injured since June 26 in flash floods and torrential rains that have battered several parts of Pakistan, according to daily data from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
