Deadly weather kills dozens across Pakistan as officials declare state of emergency
- More than 20 people died in both northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan and Punjab, where more rains were expected this week
- Some deaths occurred when lightning struck farmers harvesting wheat. Rains also caused houses to collapse in Pakistan’s northwest and east
Some deaths occurred when lightning struck farmers harvesting wheat. Rains caused dozens of houses to collapse in the northwest and in eastern Punjab province.
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Rain also lashed the capital, Islamabad, and killed seven people in southwestern Baluchistan province. Streets flooded in the northwestern city of Peshawar and in Quetta, the Baluchistan capital.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in televised remarks that he had ordered authorities to provide relief aid. Pakistan’s water reservoirs would improve because of the rains, he said.
Rafay Alam, a Pakistani environmental expert, said such heavy April rainfall is unusual.
“Two years ago, Pakistan witnessed a heatwave in March and April and now we are witnessing rains and it is all of because of climate change, which had caused heavy flooding in 2022,” he said.
Meanwhile, heavy flooding from seasonal rains in Afghanistan killed 33 people and injured 27 others in three days, according to Abdullah Janan Saiq, the Taliban’s spokesman for the State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management.
More than 600 houses were damaged or destroyed while around 200 livestock died. The flooding also damaged large areas of agricultural land and more than 85km (53 miles) of roads, he said.
He said authorities in Afghanistan had provided aid to nearly 23,000 families, and that flash floods were reported in 20 of the country’s 34 provinces.
