Flash flood kills nine worshippers in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, July 28 (Reuters) A flash flood killed nine people while they were offering early morning Muslim prayers in Pakistan's mountainous northern region today, the latest casualties from days of heavy rains, officials said.

The flood occurred in Ghaddar, a village close to Gilgit, the main town in the Northern Areas, some 240 km north of the capital Islamabad, an army official said.

Also, a landslide today obliterated four houses and six shops in a village close to Muzzafarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, which was devastated by an earthquake last October.

There were no casualties, said Zahoor Gillani, a local police official, but the mountain slopes remain unstable after the quake, and there were many landslides reported in the area.

A day earlier, in Kashmir's Bagh district three women were killed and four people were injured when their house collapsed due to the incessant rain.

The Flood Commission of Pakistan has issued warnings for people to evacuate homes along the banks of the country's three main rivers the Indus, Ravi and Chenab.

REUTERS PKS HS1704