Over 1,000 killed as floods wreak havoc across Pakistan

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Floods caused by a week of heavy rain have killed more than 1,000 people in Pakistan's northwest and rescuers battled on Sunday to distribute relief to tens of thousands of trapped people. A westerly weather system moving in from Iran and Afghanistan, combined with heavy monsoon rain, caused the worst floods on record in Pakistan in the past week, with the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa the worst hit. Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told Pakistani media more than 1,000 people had been killed and the toll could be even higher. In Afghanistan, dozens of people were killed and thousands were rescued after flash floods in the northeast.

Floods caused by a week of heavy rain have killed more than 1,000 people in Pakistan's northwest and rescuers battled on Sunday to distribute relief to tens of thousands of trapped people.

A westerly weather system moving in from Iran and Afghanistan, combined with heavy monsoon rain, caused the worst floods on record in Pakistan in the past week, with the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa the worst hit.

Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told Pakistani media more than 1,000 people had been killed and the toll could be even higher. In Afghanistan, dozens of people were killed and thousands were rescued after flash floods in the northeast.

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"The level of devastation is so widespread, so large, it is quite possible that in many areas there are damages, there are deaths which may not have been reported," army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told reporters late on Saturday.

More than 30,000 Pakistani army troops have rescued over 19,000 people from the marooned areas but officials conceded some might still be trapped and awaiting help in remote areas including Kohistan, Nowshera, Dir and in the Swat valley.

Photo shows a man wading through waist deep waters with his child while escaping floods in Risalpur, located in Nowshera District, in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province July 30, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Adrees Latif

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