At least 21 killed in Pakistan torrential rain, flooding

Schools unopen and villages swept distant arsenic Pakistan reels from monsoon devastation.

At slightest 21 radical person died successful monsoon rain-related incidents successful Pakistan, authorities said, pushing the nationwide decease toll implicit the past week supra 400 arsenic floods and landslides proceed to devastate ample parts of the country.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said connected Wednesday that 11 radical were killed successful Gilgit-Baltistan successful the northbound and 10 others died successful Karachi, Pakistan’s fiscal hub, wherever dense rainfall triggered electrocutions and location collapses.

Schools successful Karachi, a metropolis of much than 20 million, remained closed arsenic forecasters warned of further downpours until Saturday. Sindh’s main meteorologist, Amir Hyder Laghari, blamed “weak infrastructure” for the terrible flooding successful municipality areas.

The city’s ageing pipes and drains struggled to grip the deluge, leaving full neighbourhoods submerged. Residents were seen scooping murky h2o from their homes arsenic powerfulness and telephone outages added to the disruption.

People wade done a flooded roadworthy aft the monsoon rainfall successful Karachi, Pakistan, connected August 19, 2025 [File: Imran Ali/Reuters]

Provincial officials reported 40 to 50 houses damaged successful 2 districts. “Another (rain) spell is to commencement by the extremity of the month,” NDMA president Inam Haider Malik said.

The bluish state of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been hardest hit, with much than 350 radical killed since past Thursday. Authorities and service units are searching for dozens of missing villagers successful areas struck by flash floods and landslides. Excavators person been deployed to wide debris clogging rivers and drainage systems.

“We person established alleviation camps wherever we are providing aesculapian assistance. We are besides giving adust rations and tents to each the people,” service Colonel Irfan Afridi told the AFP quality bureau successful Buner district, wherever much than 220 radical person died successful caller days.

“The children are scared. They accidental we cannot slumber astatine nighttime owed to fear,” said Anjum Anwar, a aesculapian idiosyncratic astatine a alleviation camp. “The flood … has destroyed our full settlements.”

The monsoon season, which runs from June to September, often brings demolition to Pakistan’s mountainous northbound and flood-prone south. Authorities pass the existent rains whitethorn past until mid-September.

Nearly 750 radical person died since this year’s monsoon began, officials said. Pakistan, 1 of the countries astir susceptible to clime change, has faced progressively utmost upwind successful caller years. In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a 3rd of the country, sidesplitting astir 1,700 people.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies