Devastating floods killed 437 in Pakistan since Aug. 14, authorities say

ISLAMABAD

Ongoing heavy rains and flooding have claimed 43 more lives in Pakistan in just 24 hours, raising the death toll since Aug. 14 to 437, the national and provincial disaster management authorities said Wednesday.

Of the new fatalities, 21 were reported in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where 377 people have died in flood-related incidents over the past six days.

Eleven more people were killed in southern Sindh province, while another 11 died in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region in just 24 hours.

Heavy rains and flooding continue to batter the hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with authorities warning that this new spell of rain will persist until Thursday.

On Tuesday, the southern port city of Karachi was also hit by torrential downpours, causing infrastructure damage and disrupting daily life in the country's commercial hub.

The National Disaster Management Authority has warned that further heavy rainfall is expected in Karachi and other districts of Sindh in the next 24 hours, which could trigger more flooding.

Search and relief operations are ongoing in the Buner, Swat and Swabi districts, where authorities say dozens remain missing.

The remote Buner district is the hardest hit, where six more bodies were recovered from the rubble, raising the death toll to 228 since last Friday.

Since the onset of this year’s monsoon season in late June, around 748 people have reportedly been killed and over 1,000 injured across Pakistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, accompanied by Cabinet members and the army chief, visited flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and met with affected families, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.