Flash flood kills 30 in storm-ht Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, July 1 (Reuters) A flash flood triggered by torrential rain swept through six villages in Pakistan's storm-hit Baluchistan province killing 30 people and forcing more than 10,000 from their homes, a relief official said today.

Early rainy season storms have brought death and destruction to parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India killing more than 500.

Pakistan has been worst hit. A cyclone hit the southwest coast on Tuesday flooding huge tracts of mostly flat Baluchistan, much of which is usually desert.

The cyclone and subsequent floods have affected more than 1 million people and killed about 110.

Persistent rain has aggravated the flooding and caused flash floods like the one that swept away the villages in Khuzdar district yesterday.

Deputy provincial relief commissioner Ali Gul Kurd said the toll from the flash flood could rise.

''We've managed to find 30 bodies so far but we don't even know how many people are missing,'' Kurd told Reuters.

''Everything is being done haphazardly.'' A storm battered the nation's biggest city, Karachi, on June 23 killing about 230 people.

REUTERS SG RN1153