Deaths mount in Pakistan from heavy summer rains

KOHAT, Pakistan, July 29 (Reuters) A flash flood killed at least eight people gathered for a festival in northwest Pakistan today, bringing the national death toll due to heavy summer rains to over 50 during July, officials said.

The flah flood occurred in Takht-i-Nasrati, a village in Karak district in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), said Zafar Iqbal, the district official.

''More than 20 people were washed away when they were sleeping in a field early today morning and we have recovered eight dead bodies,'' Iqbal said, describing how the flash flood had washed away the encampment and cattle grazing nearby.

Eleven people were treated for minor injuries.

Yesterday, a flash flood killed nine people while they were offering early morning prayers in Gilgit, some 240 km north of the capital Islamabad.

''Rains would continue in different cities of NWFP, Punjab and Sindh over the weekend,'' Mohammad Hanif, an metereological department official.

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

REUTERS LL KP1610