Rain inundates more areas in cyclone-hit Pakistan

Islamabad, June 30: Unrelenting rains are hampering Pakistani rescuers' efforts to provide relief to a million people hit by a cyclone, as more areas in the country's southwest are inundated, officials said today.

The onset of the rainy season has brought severe weather to much of South Asia, killing more than 500 people in storms and floods in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past week.

Hardest-hit has been Pakistan.

A cyclone struck southwestern Baluchistan province on Tuesday, three days after a storm battered the nation's biggest city, Karachi, killing around 250 people.

The death toll from the cyclone and flooding in Baluchistan has risen to about 80 after 17 people were swept away by flooding caused by heavy rains in Khuzdar district last night.

''Many houses have either been collapsed or washed away in the area,'' Tariq Ayub, provincial home secretary, told sources.

He said communication systems had been badly damaged, causing problems in assessing scale of losses.

''We estimate around 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 people have been affected.'' Military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said the army had shifted around 10,000 people to safety.

Floods have inundated four districts in Baluchistan and caused severe flooding in seven others. They have washed away roads, bridges, railway lines and even severed a natural gas pipeline. In neighbouring southern Sindh province, four districts had been affected.

Weather officials forecast more heavy rains in Sindh and central Punjab province after a storm from central India moved westernly towards Pakistan in the next 48 hours.

Officials said the main problem they faced was getting help to the affected people cut off by floods in Baluchistan.

''Sometimes the situation improves and we start flying helicopters to send relief to affected areas. But all of a sudden rain starts and we have to ground the helicopters,'' provincial relief commissioner Khuda Bakhsh Baluch said.

More than 40 in Afghanistan have been killed in storms and floods over the past week.

REUTERS

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