A cloudburst triggers flash flooding in Pakistan, leaving 29 dead and dozens missing
Reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan — A flash flood struck a hamlet in a rugged area of northern Pakistan, killing at least 29 people, leaving 43 others missing and feared dead, officials said Sunday.
Among the missing were eight soldiers billeted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and at least 10 people who were praying in a mosque that was swept away by the floodwaters.
The flooding was caused by cloudbursts that hit the village of Ursoon in the mountainous Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border late Saturday night. Recovery efforts were complicated because many of the bodies were believed to have been carried across the border into Afghanistan.
About 30 people were reported injured.
Commanders of the Pakistani army were in contact with their Afghan counterparts to bring bodies back to Chitral, said one senior official. Rescue teams of the army, civil administration and private relief groups have started search and rescue operations in the border area, looking for both survivors and bodies, according to provincial Disaster Management Authority spokesman Latifur Rehman.
Residents said that flooding washed away 37 houses and damaged another 48. The military’s public relations office said food, tents and medical aid was being provided to those who were in need.
A spokesman for the provincial government, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, said bad weather was hampering relief operations.
Ali is a special correspondent
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