Torrential rains in northern Pakistan since Saturday night have triggered floods, landslides and mudslides, killing at least 70 people apart from washing away villages and homes.
According to official figures released by country's National Disaster Management Authority, the pre-monsoon downpour between Saturday and Tuesday has left 71 dead, 53 injured and 370 homes damaged.
While a national disaster management official said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been worst hit, areas in Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir provinces were also affected. Several districts remained inaccessible to rescue workers till Tuesday.
Besides homes being swept away, some bridges also collapsed, including the Karakoram Highway that links to China.
In a statement, the National Disaster Management Authority said that most of the casualties occurred after poorly-constructed buildings collapsed, particularly in rural areas.
One of the worst-affected districts was the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad, where 121 mm of rain fell on Sunday. The Meteorological Department said that the unusually heavy rain was expected to move northeast, towards northern India, in the next couple of days.
According to Dunya News, as many as two villages have been destroyed completely in Muzaffarabad.
Since March 9, heavy rains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and provinces including Punjab and Balochistan have resulted in more than 200 deaths and damaged in excess of 1,500 homes.
The country is hit by extreme weather conditions nearly every year. Last year, floods killed 81 people and affected almost three lakh people across the country.
The worst flooding in the past 80 years occurred in 2010, when flooding in Pakistan resulted in more than 1,700 deaths and widespread damage.
